AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 


Photo  by  Brown  Bros.,  New  York 

STOKE-HOLE  OF  A  TRANSATLANTIC  LINER 


AN 

UNSINKABLE 
TITANIC 

EVERY  SHIP 
ITS   OWN   LIFEBOAT 


BY 

J.  BERNARD   WALKER 

11 

Editor  of  the  Scientific  American 


NEW  YORK 

DODD,  MEAD  AND  COMPANY 
1912 


COPYRIGHT,  1912,  BY 
DODD,  MEAD  AND  COMPANY 

Published,  July,  1912 


THE  QUINN  A  BODEN  CO.  PRESS 
RAHWAY.  N.  J. 


s* 

THE  MEMORY  OF  THE  CHIEF  ENGINEER  OF  THE  TITANIC, 

JOHN    BELL, 

AND    HIS   STAFF   OF   THIRTY -THREE   ASSISTANTS, 

WHO  STOOD  AT  THEIR  POSTS  IN  THE  ENGINE- 

AND  BOILER-ROOMS  TO  THE  VERY  LAST, 

AND  WENT  DOWN  WITH  THE  SHIP, 

THIS  WORK  IS  DEDICATED 


248006 


PEEFACE 

IT  is  the  object  of  this  work  to  show  that,  in  our 
eagerness  to  make  the  ocean  liner  fast  and 
luxurious,  we  have  forgotten  to  make  her  safe. 

The  safest  ocean  liner  was  the  Great  East- 
ern; and  she  was  built  over  fifty  years  ago. 
Her  designer  aimed  to  make  the  ship  practically 
unsinkable — and  he  succeeded;  for  she  passed 
through  a  more  severe  ordeal  than  the  Titanic, 
survived  it,  and  came  into  port  under  her  own 
steam. 

Since  her  day,  the  shipbuilder  has  eliminated 
all  but  one  of  the  safety  devices  which  made  the 
Great  Eastern  a-  ship  so  difficult  to  sink.  No- 
body, not  even  the  shipbuilders  themselves, 
seemed  to  realise  what  was  being  done,  until, 
suddenly,  the  world 's  finest  vessel,  in  all  the 
pride  of  her  maiden  voyage,  struck  an  iceberg 
and  went  to  the  bottom  in  something  over  two 
and  a  half  hours '  time ! 

If  we  learn  the  lesson  of  this  tragedy,  we 
shall  lose  no  time  in  getting  back  to  first  prin- 
ciples. We  shall  reintroduce  in  all  future  pas- 
[v] 


PEEFACE 

senger  ships  those  simple  and  effective  ele- 
ments of  safety — the  double  skin,  the  longitudi- 
nal bulkhead,  and  the  watertight  deck — which, 
were  conspicuous  in  the  Great  Eastern,  and 
which  alone  can  render  such  a  ship  as  the  Ti- 
tanic unsinkable. 

The  author's  acknowledgments  are  due  to  the 
' '  Scientific  American  ' '  for  many  of  the  photo- 
graphs and  line  drawings  reproduced  in  this 
volume;  to  an  article  by  Professor  J.  H.  Biles, 
published  in  "  Engineering, "  for  material  re- 
lating to  the  Board  of  Trade  stipulations  as  to 
bulkheads ;  to  Sir  George  C.  V.  Holmes  and  the 
Victoria  and  Albert  Museum  for  data  regarding 
the  Great  Eastern,  published  in  "  Ancient  and 
Modern  Ships  ";  to  Naval  Constructor  E.  H. 
M.  Eobinson,  U.S.N.,  for  permission  to  repro- 
duce certain  drawings  from  his  work,  "  Naval 
Construction,"  and  to  Naval  Constructor 
Henry  Williams,  U.S.N.,  who  courteously  read 
the  proofs  of  this  work  and  offered  many  valu- 
able suggestions.  The  original  wash  and  line 
drawings  are  by  Mr.  C.  McKnight  Smith. 

J.  B.  W. 
NEW  YORK,  June,  1912. 

[vi] 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  INTRODUCTORY  ......         1 

II.  THE  EVER-PRESENT  DANGERS  OF  THE  SEA      19 

III.  EVERY  SHIP  ITS  OWN  LIFEBOAT      .         .       35 

IV.  SAFETY  LIES  IN  SUBDIVISION   .         .         .51 

V.    THE    UNSINKABLE    GREAT  EASTERN  OF 

1858 69 

VI.     THE  SINK  ABLE  TITANIC    .        .        .        .91 
VII.     How  THE  GREAT  SHIP  WENT  DOWN      .     116 

VIII.     WARSHIP    PROTECTION    AGAINST    RAM, 

MINE,  AND  TORPEDO     .         .         .         .136 

IX.     WARSHIP   PROTECTION  AS  APPLIED    TO 

SOME  OCEAN  LINERS     .         .         .         .161 

X.     CONCLUSIONS  179 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Stoke-Hole  of  a  Transatlantic  Liner     .         Frontispiece 

PAGE 

Riveting   the    Outer  Skin   on   the  Frames   of   a 
65,000-Ton  Ocean  Liner 3 

Growth  of  the  Transatlantic  Steamer  from  1840 
to  1912 7 

Receiving  Submarine  Signals  on  the  Bridge  .         .       13 
Taking  the  Temperature  of  the  Water  .         .         .17 

Fire-Drill  on  a  German  Liner:  Stewards  are  Clos- 
ing Door  in  Fire-Protection  Bulkhead        .         .       21 

Fire-Drill  on  a  German  Liner:  Hose  from  Bellows 
Supplies  Fresh  Air  to  Man  with  Smoke  Helmet  .       25 

Fire-Drill  on  a  German  Liner:  Test  of  Fire-Mains 
is  Made  Every  Time  the  Ship  is  in  Port     .         .       29 

The  44,000-Ton,  25^-Knot  Lusitania    .         .         .37 
Provisioning  the  Boats  During  a  Boat  Drill .         .       43 

Loading  and  Lowering  Boats,  Stowed  Athwart- 

43 


The  Elaborate  Installation  of  Telegraphs,  Tele- 
phones, Voice -Tubes,  etc.,  on  the  Bridge  of  an 
Ocean  Liner 47 

Hydraulically-operated,    Watertight   Door   in   an 

Engine-Room  Bulkhead  ....       53 

[ix] 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Diagram  Showing  Protective  Value  of  Transverse    PAGB 
and  Longitudinal  Bulkheads,  Watertight  Decks, 
and  Inner  Skin 57 

Closing,  from  the  Bridge,  All  Watertight  Doors 
Throughout  the  Ship  by  Pulling  a  Lever  .  .  63 

Great  Eastern,  1858;  Most  Completely  Protected 
Passenger  Ship  Ever  Built  .  .  .  .71 

Longitudinal  Section  and  Plan  of  the  Great 
Eastern,  1858 77 

Two  Extremes  in  Protection,  and  a  Compromise   .       83 

Great  Eastern,  Lying  at  Foot  of  Canal  Street, 
North  River,  New  York 87 

Fifty  Years'  Decline  in  Safety  Construction          .       93 

Olympic,  Sister  to  Titanic,  reaching  New  York 
on  Maiden  Voyage 97 

The  Framing  and  Some  of  the  Deck  Beams  of  the 
Imperator,  as  Seen  from  Inside  the  Bow, 
Before  the  Outside  Plating  is  Riveted  On  .  103 

How  the  Plating  of  the  Inner  Bottom  of  Such  a 
Ship  as  the  Titanic  May  Be  Carried  up  the 
Side  Frames  to  Form  an  Inner  Skin  .  .  .  107 

Twenty  of  the  Twenty-nine  Boilers  of  the  Titanic 
Assembled  Ready  for  Placing  in  the  Ship  .  Ill 

The  Last  Photograph  of  the  Titanic,  Taken  as 
She  was  Leaving  Southampton  on  Her  Maiden 
Voyage 117 

Swimming  Pool  on  the  Titanic      .        .        .        .121 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

The  Titanic  Struck  a  Glancing  Blow  Against  an 
Under- Water  Shelf  of  the  Iceberg,  Opening  up 
Five  Compartments  .  .  .  .  .  .125 

Comparison  of  Subdivision  in  Two  Famous  Ships.  129 
The  Vast  Dining-Room  of  the  Titanic .  .  .133 
The  United  States  Battleship  Kansas  .  .  .137 

Plan  and  Longitudinal  Section  of  the  Battleship 
Connecticut 143 

Midship  Section  of  a  Battleship  .  .  .  .149 
Safety  Lies  in  Subdivision  .  .  .  .  .155 

The  65,000-Ton,  23-Knot  Imperator,  Largest  Ship 
Afloat 159 

Longitudinal  Section  and  Plan  of  the  Imperator  .     163 

The  Rotor,  or  Rotating  Element,  of  One  of  the 
Low- Pressure  Turbines  of  the  Imperator  .  .167 

The  26,000-Ton,  23£-Knot  Kronprinzessin  CeciUe, 
a  Thoroughly  Protected  Ship  .  .  .  .171 


[xi] 


CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTORY 

AMONG  the  many  questions  which  have  arisen 
out  of  the  loss  of  the  Titanic  there  is  one,  which, 
in  its  importance  as  affecting  the  safety  of 
ocean  travel,  stands  out  preeminent: 

"  Why  did  this  ship,  the  latest,  the  largest, 
and  supposedly  the  safest  of  ocean  liners,  go 
to  the  bottom  so  soon  after  collision  with  an 
iceberg?  " 

The  question  is  one  to  which,  as  yet,  no  an- 
swer that  is  perfectly  clear  to  the  lay  mind  has 
been  made.  We  know  that  the  collision  was  the 
result  of  daring  navigation;  that  the  whole- 
sale loss  of  life  was  due  to  the  lack  of  lifeboats 
and  the  failure  to  fill  completely  the  few  that 
were  available;  and  that,  had  it  not  been  for 
the  amazing  indifference  or  stupidity  of  the 
captain  of  a  nearby  steamer,  who  failed  to  an- 
swer the  distress  signals  of  the  sinking  vessel, 
the  whole  of  the  ship's  complement  might  have 
been  saved. 

But  the  ship  itself — why  did  she  so  quickly 
[1] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

go  to  the  bottom  after  meeting  'with  an  acci- 
dent, which,  in  spite  of  its  stupendous  results, 
must  be  reckoned  as  merely  one  among  the 
many  risks  of  transatlantic  travel? 

So  far  as  the  loss  of  the  ship  itself  was  con- 
cerned, it  is  certain  that  the  stupefaction  with 
which  the  news  of  her  sinking  was  received 
was  due  to  the  belief  that  her  vast  size  was 
a  guarantee  against  disaster — that  the  ever- 
increasing  dimensions  of  length,  breadth,  and 
tonnage  had  conferred  upon  the  modern  ocean 
liner  a  certain  immunity  against  the  dangers  of 
travel  by  sea.  The  fetish  of  mere  size  seems, 
indeed,  to  have  affected  even  the  officers  in 
command  of  these  modern  leviathans.  Surely 
it  must  have  thrown  its  spell  over  the  captain 
of  the  ill-fated  Titanic,  who,  in  spite  of  an  oft- 
repeated  warning  that  there  was  a  large  field 
of  ice  ahead,  followed  the  usual  practice,  if  the 
night  is  clear,  and  ran  his  ship  at  full  speed 
into  the  zone  of  danger,  as  though,  forsooth,  he 
expected  the  Titanic  to  brush  the  ice  floes 
aside,  and  split  asunder  any  iceberg  that  might 
stand  in  her  way. 

Confidence  in  the  indestructibility  of  the 
Titanic,  moreover,  was  stimulated  by  the  fact 
[2] 


llVETTING  THE  OUTER  SKIN  ON  THE  FRAMES  OF  A  65,000- 
TON  OCEAN  LINER 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

tfiat  she  was  supposed  to  be  the  "  last  word  " 
n  first-class  steamship  construction,  the  cul- 
nination  of  three-quarters  of  a  century  of  ex- 
perience in  building  safe  and  stanch  vessels. 
[n  the  official  descriptions  of  the  ship,  widely 
listributed  at  the  time  of  her  launching,  the 
safety  elements  of  her  construction  were  freely 
Iwelt  upon.  This  literature  rang  the  changes 
m  stout  bulkheads,  watertight  compartments, 
mtomatic,  self-closing  bulkhead  doors,  etc., — 
md  honestly  so.  There  is  every  reason  to  be- 
ieve  that  the  celebrated  firm  who  built  the  ship, 
renowned  the  world  over  for  the  high  char- 
acter of  their  work;  the  powerful  company 
yhose  flag  she  carried;  aye,  and  even  her 
;alented  designer,  who  was  the  first  to  pro- 
lounce  the  Titanic  a  doomed  vessel  and  went 
lown  with  the  ship,  were  united  in  the  belief 
;hat  the  size  of  the  Titanic  and  her  construction 
vere  such  that  she  was  unsinkable  by  any  of  the 
ordinary  accidents  to  which  the  transatlantic 
iner  is  liable. 

How  comes  it,  then,  that  this  noble  vessel 
ies  to-day  at  the  bottom  of  the  Atlantic  in 
;wo  thousand  fathoms  of  water! 

A  review  of  the  progress  of  those  constructive 
[5] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

arts  which  affect  the  safety  of  human  life  seems 
to  show  that  it  needs  the  spur  of  great  dis- 
asters, such  as  this,  to  concentrate  the  atten-j 
tion  of  the  engineer  and  the  architect  upon  the 
all-important  question  of  safety.  More  im-| 
portant  than  considerations  of  convenience, 
economy,  speed  of  construction,  or  even  reve- 
nue-earning capacity,  are  those  of  the  value  and 
sanctity  of  human  life.  Too  frequently  these 
considerations  are  the  last  to  receive  attention. 
This  is  due  less  to  indifference  than  to  inad- 
vertence— a  failure  to  remember  that  an  acci- 
dent which  may  be  insignificant  in  its  effect  on 
steel  and  stone,  may  be  fatal  to  frail  flesh  and 
blood.  Furthermore,  the  monumental  disasters, 
and  particularly  those  occurring  in  this  age  of  j 
great  constructive  works,  are  frequently  trace- 
able to  hidden  or  unsuspected  causes,  the  exist- 
ence and  potentialities  of  which  are  revealed 
only  when  the  mischief  has  been  done.  A 
faulty  method  of  construction,  containing  in 
itself  huge  possibilities  of  disaster,  may  be  per-; 
sisted  in  for  years  without  revealing  its  lurk- 
ing menace.  Here  and  there,  now  and  then, 
some  minor  mischance  will  direct  the  attention 
of  the  few  to  the  peril ;  but  the  excitement  will 

[6] 


CuurUsy  of  ticitntijii-  American. 

Note  how  far  the  Great  Eastern  was  ahead  of  her  time.     She 
was  not  exceeded  until  the  advent  of  the  Oceanic  in  1899. 

GROWTH  OF  THE  TRANSATLANTIC  STEAMER  FROM  1840  TO 

1912 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

be  local  and  passing.  It  takes  a  "  horror  " — 
a  "  holocaust  "  of  human  life,  with  all  its  at- 
tendant exploitation  in  the  press  and  the 
monthly  magazine,  to  awaken  a  busy  and  pre- 
occupied world  to  the  danger  and  beget  those 
stringent  laws  and  improved  constructions 
which  are  the  earmarks  of  progress  towards 
an  ideal  civilisation. 

Not  many  years  ago,  there  was  being  erected 
across  the  St.  Lawrence  Eiver  a  huge  bridge, 
with  the  largest  single  span  in  the  world,  which 
it  was  believed  would  be  not  only  the  largest 
but  the  strongest  and  most  enduring  structure 
I  of  its  kind  hi  existence.  It  was  being  built 
under  the  supervision  of  one  of  the  leading 
bridge  engineers  of  the  world;  its  design  was 
of  an  approved  type,  which  had  long  been  stand- 
ard in  the  Western  Hemisphere;  and  the  steel- 
work was  being  fabricated  in  one  of  the  best 
equipped  bridge  works  in  the  country.  Never- 
theless, when  one  great  cantilever  was  about  com- 
pleted, and  before  any  live  load  had  been  placed 
on  it,  the  structure  collapsed  under  its  own 
weight.  One  of  the  principal  members — a  mas- 
sive steel  column,  five  feet  square  and  sixty  feet 
long — crumpled  up  as  though  it  had  been  a  boy's 

[9] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

tin  whistle,  and  allowed  the  whofe  bridge  to  fall 
into  the  St.  Lawrence,  carrying  eighty  men  to 
their  death !  The  disaster  was  traced  to  a  very 
insignificant  cause — the  failure  of  some  small 
angle-bars,  3  1-2  inches  in  width,  by  which  the 
parts  of  the  massive  member  were  held  in  place. 
No  engineer  had  suspected  that  danger  lurked 
in  these  little  angle-bars.  Had  the  accident 
happened  to  a  bridge  of  moderate  size,  the  les- 
sons of  the  failure  would  have  been  noted  by 
the  engineers  and  contractors;  it  would  have 
formed  the  subject,  possibly,  of  a  paper  before 
some  engineering  society,  and  the  warning 
would  have  had  results  merely  local  and  tempo- 
rary. But  the  failure  of  this  monumental 
structure,  with  a  loss  of  life  so  appalling,  gave 
to  the  disaster  a  world-wide  notoriety.  It  be- 
came the  subject  of  a  searching  enquiry  by  a 
highly  expert  board;  the  unsuspected  danger 
which  lurked  in  the  existing  and  generally  ap- 
proved methods  of  building  up  massive  steel 
columns  was  acknowledged;  and  safer  rules  of 
construction  were  adopted. 

It  took  the  Baltimore  conflagration  to  teach 
us  the  strong  and  weak  points  of  our  much- 
vaunted    systems    of    fireproof    construction. 
[10] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

Only  when  San  Francisco,  after  repeated  warn- 
ings, had  seen  the  whole  of  its  business  section 
shaken  down  and  ravaged  by  fire,  did  she  set 
about  the  construction  of  a  city  that  would  be 
proof  against  fire  and  earthquake.  It  was  the 
spectacle  of  maimed  and  dying  passengers  being 
slowly  burned  to  death  in  the  wreckage  of  col- 
liding wooden  cars,  that  led  to  the  abolition  of 
the  heating  stove  and  the  oil  lamp;  and  it  was 
the  risk  of  fire,  coupled  with  the  shocking  in- 
juries due  to  splintering  of  wooden  cars,  that 
brought  in  the  era  of  the  electrically  lighted, 
strong,  and  incombustible  steel  car. 

The  conditions  attending  the  loss  of  the 
Titanic  were  so  heartrending,  and  its  appeal 
has  been  so  world- wide,  as  to  lead  us  to  expect 
that  the  tragedy  will  be  preeminently  fruitful 
in  those  reforms  which,  as  we  have  shown,  usu- 
ally follow  a  disaster  of  this  magnitude.  Had 
the  ship  been  less  notable  and  the  toll  of  human 
life  less  terrible,  the  disaster  might  have  failed 
to  awaken  that  sense  of  distrust  in  present 
methods  which  is  at  the  root  of  all  thorough- 
going reform.  The  measure  of  the  one  compen- 
sation which  can  be  recovered  from  this  awful 
loss  of  life  and  treasure,  will  depend  upon  the 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

care  with  which  its  lessons  are  learned  and  the 
fidelity  with  which  they  are  carried  out. 

Unquestionably,  public  faith  in  the  security 
of  ocean  travel  has  been  rudely  shaken.  The 
defects,  however,  which  are  directly  answerable 
for  the  sinking  of  this  ship  are  fortunately  of 
such  a  character  that  they  can  be  easily  cor- 
rected; and  if  certain  necessary  and  really  very 
simple  changes  in  construction  are  made  (and 
they  can  be  made  without  any  burdensome  in- 
crease in  the  cost)  we  do  not  hesitate  to  say 
that  future  passenger  travel  on  a  first-class 
ocean-going  steamship  will  be  rendered  abso- 
lutely safe. 

The  duty  of  a  passenger  steamer,  such  as  the 
Titanic,  may  be  regarded  as  threefold :  She 
must  stay  afloat;  she  must  provide  a  comfort- 
able home  for  a  small  townful  of  people;  and 
she  must  carry  them  to  their  destination  with 
as  much  speed  as  is  compatible  with  safety  and 
comfort.  Evidently  the  first  condition,  as  to 
safety,  should  be  paramount.  When  it  has  been 
determined  to  build  a  ship  of  a  certain  size  and 
weight  (in  the  case  of  the  Titanic  the  weight 
was  60,000  tons,  loaded)  the  designer  should  be 
permitted  to  appropriate  to  the  safety  elements 
[12] 


Small  dial  indicates  whether  signals  come  from  port  or  starboard. 

RECEIVING  SUBMARINE  SIGNALS  ON  THE  BRIDGE 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

of  her  construction  every  pound  of  steel  that 
he  may  wish  to  employ.  In  a  vessel  like  the 
Titanic,  which  is  to  be  entrusted  with  the  care 
of  three  or  four  thousand  souls,  he  should  be 
permitted  to  double-skin  the  ship,  and  divide 
and  subdivide  the  hull  with  bulkheads,  until 
he  is  satisfied  that  the  vessel  is  unsinkable  by 
any  of  the  ordinary  accidents  of  the  sea.  When 
these  demands  have  been  met,  he  may  pile  deck 
upon  deck  and  crowd  as  big  a  boiler-  and  engine- 
plant  into  this  unsinkable  hull  as  the  balance  of 
the  weights  at  his  disposal  will  allow. 

Unfortunately  the  Board  of  Trade  require- 
ments under  which  the  Titanic  was  built — and 
very  conscientiously  built — proceed  along  no 
such  common-sense  lines.  Instead,  the  Board 
many  years  ago  framed  a  set  of  rules  in  which 
the  safety  requirements  were  cut  down  to  such 
a  low  limit,  that  the  question  of  a  ship's  sur- 
viving a  serious  collision  was  reduced  to  a  mere 
gamble  with  Fate.  The  Board  of  Trade  ship 
may  fill  two  adjoining  compartments,  and  then 
with  the  top  of  her  bulkheads  practically  level 
with  the  sea,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Board,  she 
will  have  a  fighting  chance  to  live  in  smooth 
water! 

[15] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

The  Titanic  filled  at  least  five  adjoining  com- 
partments, and  hence, — thanks  to  these  alto- 
gether inadequate  and  obsolete  requirements, 
she  is  now  at  the  bottom  of  the  Atlantic;  and, 
thanks  again  to  the  requirements  of  the  Board 
as  to  lifeboat  accommodations,  over  fifteen 
hundred  of  her  passengers  and  crew  went  down 
with  the  ship ! 


[16] 


Water  is  hauled  up  in  the  canvas  bucket  and  its  temperature 
taken  by  thermometer. 

TAKING  THE  TEMPERATURE  OF  THE  WATER 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  EVER-PKESENT  DANGEES  OF  THE  SEA 

BOSWELL,  that  faithful,  if  over-appreciative 
chronicler,  tells  us  that  Dr.  Johnson  once  de- 
scribed an  ocean  voyage  as  "  going  to  jail  with 
a  chance  of  being  drowned."  Had  some  one 
quoted  the  grim  witticism  of  the  doctor  in  the 
spacious  dining-room  of  the  Titanic  on  the 
night  of  April  the  fourteenth,  it  would  have 
provoked  a  smile  of  derisive  incredulity.  Go- 
ing to  sea  in  the  cramped  quarters  of  the  frail 
sailing  packet  of  Johnson's  day  was  one  thing; 
crossing  the  Atlantic  at  railroad  speed  in  the 
spacious  luxury  of  a  60,000-ton  liner  was  quite 
another.  Yet,  five  hours  later,  when  the  vast 
bulk  of  that  noble  ship  was  slanting  to  its  final 
plunge,  the  pitiless  truth  was  brought  home  to 
that  awe- stricken  crowd  that,  even  to-day, 
travel  by  sea  involves  the  "  chance  of  being 
drowned. ' ' 

The  remarkable  immunity  of  the  high-speed 
Atlantic  liners  from  such  accidents  as  befell  the 
[19] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

Titanic  has  been  due  in  part  to  careful  seaman- 
ship and  in  part  to  an  amazing  run  of  good 
luck.  Of  this  there  can  be  no  doubt  whatever. 
On  a  recent  occasion  the  subject  was  brought 
up  for  discussion  in  the  officers'  quarters  of 
one  of  the  fastest  liners.  In  answer  to  the 
writer's  question  as  to  whether  the  dangers  of 
running  at  high  speed  through  fog  or  ice- 
infested  regions  were  not  enormous,  one  of  the 
officers  frankly  admitted  that,  not  only  were  the 
risks  most  serious,  but  the  immunity  from  such 
disasters  as  that  which  befell  the  Titanic  was 
to  be  explained  on  the  ground  of  sheer  good 
fortune.  "  I  well  remember,"  said  he,  "  that 
the  first  time  I  found  myself  in  charge  of  the 
bridge  on  a  ship  that  was  running  through  fog 
at  a  speed  of  over  20  knots,  I  fairly  shivered 
with  a  sense  of  the  possibilities  of  disaster 
that  were  involved.  To-day — well — familiarity, 

you  know " 

Let  it  not  be  supposed,  from  the  heading  of 
this  chapter,  that  it  is  the  writer's  purpose  to 
draw  any  lurid  picture  of  the  dangers  of  ocean 
travel.  These  are  no  greater  to-day  than  they 
were  before  the  Titanic  went  down.  Icebergs 
have  swept  down  from  the  Arctic  seas  from 
[20] 


8    I 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

time  immemorial,  and  year  by  year  they  will 
continue  to  throw  the  shadow  of  their  awful 
menace  across  the  lines  of  steamship  travel. 
Fog,  with  its  ever-present  dangers  of  collision, 
will  continue  to  infest  the  ocean  highways ;  and 
always,  the  half-submerged  derelict,  a  peril 
scarcely  less  than  that  of  the  iceberg,  will 
continue  to  sail  its  uncharted  course  over  the 
high  seas. 

The  strength  of  the  impulse  to  build  unsink- 
able  ships  will  be  exactly  in  proportion  to  our 
realisation  of  the  dangers  which  beset  ocean 
travel.  The  toll  of  human  life  exacted  in  the 
recent  disaster  will  lose  its  one  possible  com- 
pensation, if  it  fails  to  impress  deeply  the  very 
serious  lesson  that  since  the  sea  is  not  man's 
natural  element,  he  can  hold  his  way  safely 
across  its  surface  only  at  the  cost  of  most  care- 
ful preparation  and  eternal  vigilance. 

Protracted  and  amazing  immunity  from  dis- 
asters of  portentous  magnitude  has  bred  in  us 
something  of  that  very  contempt  for  the  dan- 
gers of  the  sea  above  referred  to.  We  have 
piled  deck  upon  deck  until  the  "  floating 
palace  "  of  the  sea  towers  twice  as  far  above 
the  water-line  as  it  extends  below  it.  So 
[23] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

rapidly  have  we  added  weight  to  weight  and 
horsepower  to  horsepower,  that  both  the  mass 
and  the  power  have  been  quadrupled.  The  giant 
steamship  of  to-day,  as  she  rushes  through  the 
black  night  and  the  all-obscuring  fog,  repre- 
sents a  potential  engine  of  destruction,  for 
which  no  parallel  can  be  found  in  the  whole  field 
of  human  activity. 

Do  you  doubt  it?  Then  learn  that  on  that 
fatal  night  when  the  Titanic  bore  headlong  into 
the  icefield,  she  embodied  in  her  onrushing 
mass  an  energy  equal  to  that  of  the  combined 
broadsides  of  our  two  most  powerful  battle- 
ships, the  Florida  and  the  Utah.  Which  is  to 
say  that,  if  the  two  dreadnoughts  had  dis- 
charged their  twenty  twelve-inch  guns,  at  point- 
blank  range,  against  the  iceberg  which  sank 
this  ship,  they  would  have  struck  a  combined 
blow  of  less  energy  than  that  delivered  by  the 
Titanic.  And  every  one  of  these  guns,  be  it 
remembered,  delivers  its  shell  with  an  energy 
of  50,000  foot-tons—sufficient  to  lift  either  of 
these  battleships  nearly  two  and  a  half  feet 
into  the  air. 

Of  the  serious  risk  to  a  ship  of  collision  with 
an  iceberg,  it  is  superfluous  to  say  anything 
[24] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

here.  The  swift  sinking  of  the  world's  great- 
est steamship  has  driven  that  lesson  home, 
surely,  for  all  time  to  come.  But  there  are  two 
other  forms  of  accident  on  the  high  seas — col- 
lision with  another  ship  and  the  running  down 
of  a  derelict — whose  possibilities  of  disaster  are 
scarcely  less.  For  if  the  huge  steamships  of 
our  day,  moving  at  high  speed,  are  such  po- 
tential engines  of  destruction,  it  follows  that 
the  damaging  effects  of  collisions  are  propor- 
tionately increased. 

If  a  60,000-ton  ship,  such  as  the  Titanic,  while 
running  at  high  speed,  were  struck  on  the  beam 
by  a  vessel  of  large  size,  it  is  quite  conceivable 
that  the  outside  plating  of  three  of  her  com- 
partments (not  merely  the  "  two  adjoining  "  of 
standard  shipbuilding  practice)  might  be  broken 
in,  or  the  seams  and  butts  started,  before  the 
energy  of  the  colliding  ship  was  absorbed  and 
the  two  vessels  swung  clear  of  each  other.  The 
average  length  of  the  compartments  of  the 
Titanic  was  about  53  feet.  At  21  knots  she 
would  move  forward  about  35  feet  in  one  sec- 
ond. Hence,  in  a  few  seconds'  time  (even  al- 
lowing for  her  slowing  down  due  to  the  drag 
of  the  other  ship),  her  enormous  energy  of  over 
[27] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

1,000,000  foot-tons  would  cause  her  to  grind 
along  past  the  broken  bow,  surely  more  than 
the  100  feet  or  so  which  would  suffice  to  in- 
volve three  compartments.  If  three  compart- 
ments amidships  were  opened  to  the  sea,  it 
would  mean  the  admission  of  some  12,000  to 
15,000  tons  of  water. 

Even  more  insidious  is  the  menace  of  the 
abandoned  and  water-logged  ship — the  justly 
dreaded  derelict — which,  floating  low  in  the 
water,  and  without  a  light  to  reveal  its  position, 
may  lie  directly  in  the  path  of  the  high-speed 
ocean  liner.  So  slightly  does  the  derelict  pro- 
ject above  the  surface,  that  it  is  almost  impos- 
sible of  detection  by  night  from  the  lofty  posi- 
tion of  the  lookout  on  a  modern  steamship. 

Another  risk  of  the  sea,  which,  because  of 
long  immunity  from  disaster,  is  in  danger  of 
being  overlooked  or  underrated,  is  that  of  fire. 
The  structural  portions  of  a  ship  and  its  engine- 
and  boiler-plant,  being  of  metal,  are  proof 
against  fire;  but  the  stateroom  partitions,  the 
wooden  floors  and  ceilings,  the  wainscoting,  and 
the  hundreds  of  tons  of  material  used  in  decora- 
tion and  general  embellishment,  to  say  noth- 
ing of  the  highly  inflammable  paint-work  and 
[28] 


a  C 

03  h3 

i  1 

£  t-t 
2 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

varnish,  constitute  a  mass  of  material,  which, 
in  the  event  of  a  serious  fire,  might  turn  the 
whole  interior  of  a  large  passenger  ship  into 
one  vast  cauldron  of  flame.  Fortunately,  the 
bulkhead  is  as  effective  in  confining  a  fire  as  it 
is  in  localising  an  inflow  of  water  in  the  event 
of  collision.  Therefore,  some  of  the  bulkheads 
of  the  under-water  portion  of  all  passenger  ships 
should  be  continued  (of  lighter  construction) 
right  through  the  decks  reserved  for  passenger 
accommodations,  to  the  topmost  deck  of  the  ship. 

But,  perhaps,  after  all  said  and  done,  the 
greatest  perils  of  high-speed  ocean  travel  are 
to  be  found  in  that  spirit  of  nautical  sangfroid, 
or  indifference  to  danger,  which,  as  this  disaster 
has  proved,  may  in  time  begin  to  characterise 
the  attitude  even  of  so  experienced  a  navigator 
as  the  late  captain  of  the  Titanic. 

Protection  against  the  dangers  of  the  sea  may 
be  sought  in  two  directions :  First,  the  enforce- 
ment of  rules  for  more  careful  navigation ;  sec- 
ond, the  embodiment  of  non-sinkable  construc- 
tion in  the  ship. 

The  protection  afforded  by  the  one  is  limited 
by  the  fallibility  of  human  nature. 

The  protection  afforded  by  the  other  is  exact, 
[31] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

absolutely  sure,  and  will  last  as  long  as  the  ship 
itself. 

If  we  would  make  ocean  travel  safe  we  must 
make  the  ship,  as  far  as  possible,  unsinkable. 
In  other  words,  the  naval  architect  must  adopt 
that  principle  of  construction,  common  in  other 
linesi  of  mechanical  work,  which  has  been  aptly 
designated  as  ' '  fool-proof. ' '  In  the  building  of 
folly-proof  ships,  then  (the  term  is  here  used 
in  a  modified  sense  and  with  not  the  least  re- 
flection upon  that  fine  body  of  professional  men 
whose  duties  lie  on  the  bridge  of  our  ocean 
liners),  is  to  be  found  the  one  sure  protection 
against  the  perils  of  the  sea. 

We  are  well  aware  that  the  merchant  ship, 
like  the  warship,  is  a  compromise,  and  that  the 
ingenuity  of  the  naval  architect  is  sorely  taxed 
to  meet  the  many  demands  for  speed,  coal  ca- 
pacity, freight  capacity,  and  luxurious  accom- 
modations for  passengers.  All  this  is  admitted. 
But  the  object  of  these  chapters  is  to  show 
that  in  designing  the  ship,  the  architect  has 
given  too  little  attention  to  the  elements  of 
safety — that,  in  the  compromise,  luxurious  ac- 
commodations, let  us  say,  have  been  favoured 
at  the  expense  of  certain  protective  structural 
[32] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

arrangements,  which  might  readily  be  intro- 
duced without  any  great  addition  to  the  cost  of 
the  ship,  or  any  serious  sacrifice  of  comfort  or 
speed. 

Under  the  sobering  effect  of  this  calamity, 
caution  and  moderation  are  the  watchwords  of 
the  hour.  Steamships  are  leaving  port  crowded 
with  lifeboats  of  every  size  and  shape.  Steam- 
ship routes  have  been  moved  far  to  the  south 
of  the  accustomed  lines  of  travel.  The  time  oc- 
cupied in  passage  is  longer,  distances  are 
greater,  and  the  coal  bill  runs  into  larger 
figures. 

But  competition  is  keen,  dividends  must  be 
earned,  and  amid  all  the  fret  and  fever  of  our 
modern  life,  memories,  even  of  stupendous  hap- 
penings, have  but  a  brief  life.  Steamship 
routes,  under  the  strong  pressure  of  competi- 
tion, will  tend  to  edge  northward  on  to  the  older 
and  shorter  sailing  lines.  Immunity  from  dis- 
aster will  beget  the  old  sangfroid;  and  with 
the  near  approach  of  the  age  of  motor-driven 
ships,  we  may  look  for  an  increase  in  speed 
such  as  the  old  Atlantic  has  never  witnessed, 
even  in  the  years  of  fiercest  contest  for  the  blue 
ribbon  of  the  seas. 

[33] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

Let  it  be  so — provided,  always  provided  that, 
made  wise  by  the  lessons  of  the  hour,  we  write 
it  in  our  laws  and  grave  it  deep  in  the  hearts  of 
our  shipbuilders,  that  the  one  sure  safeguard 
against  the  eternal  hazards  of  the  sea  is  the  fire- 
proof and  unsinkable  ship! 


[34] 


CHAPTER  in 

EVERY  SHIP  ITS  OWN  LIFEBOAT 

SAY  what  we  will,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the 
lifeboat  is  a  makeshift.  The  long  white  line 
of  boats,  conspicuous  on  each  side  of  the 
upper  deck  of  a  large  passenger  ship,  is,  in  a, 
certain  sense,  a  confession  of  failure — an  ad- 
mission on  the  part  of  the  shipbuilder  that, 
in  spite  of  all  that  he  has  done  in  making  travel 
by  sea  fast  and  comfortable,  he  has  not  yet  suc- 
ceeded in  making  it  safe. 

Progress  in  shipbuilding  and  especially  in  the 
construction  of  fast  and  luxuriously  appointed 
ships  has  been  simply  phenomenal,  particularly 
during  the  past  two  decades.  There  is  no  art 
in  the  whole  field  of  engineering  that  has  made 
such  rapid  and  astonishing  strides;  and  it  is 
not  stretching  the  point  too  far  to  assert  that 
man's  mastery  of  the  ocean  is  the  greatest 
engineering  triumph  of  all  time. 

The  fury  of  the  elements,  as  shown  in  a  heavy 
storm  at  sea,  has  always  been  regarded  as  one 
of  the  most  majestic  and  terrifying  exhibitions 
[35] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

of  the  forces  of  nature.  When  the  sailing 
packet  was  struck  by  the  full  fury  of  a  gale, 
the  skipper  lay  to,  thankful  if  he  could  sur- 
vive the  racket,  without  carrying  away  boats, 
bulwarks,  and  deck  gear.  Frequently,  with  can- 
vas blown  out  of  the  bolt  ropes,  he  was  obliged 
to  run  under  bare  poles,  at  the  imminent  risk 
of  being  swamped  under  the  weight  of  some  fol- 
lowing sea.  For  many  a  decade,  even  in  the 
era  of  the  steamship,  it  was  necessary,  when 
heading  into  a  heavy  sea,  to  slow  down  the 
engines,  maintaining  only  sufficient  speed  to 
give  steerage  way.  To-day,  so  great  are  the 
weight  and  engine  power  that  the  giant  steam- 
ship, if  the  captain  is  willing  to  risk  some  minor 
mishaps  to  her  upper  works,  may  be  driven 
resistlessly  along  the  appointed  lines  of  travel 
regardless  of  wind  and  sea.  So  far  as  the  loss 
of  the  ship  from  heavy  weather  is  concerned, 
man  has  obtained  complete  mastery  of  the 
ocean. 

The  writer  well  remembers  a  trip  to  the 
westward  on  one  of  the  subsidised  mail  steam- 
ers, built  to  naval  requirements,  which  was 
made  at  a  time  when  the  ship  was  striving  to 
accomplish  the  average  speed  of  24  1-2  knots 
[36] 


"rr«*H     HIM 

•j?  o    to 

^     C^l 

11.3 


2  £ 

2 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

for  the  round  trip  from  England  to  America, 
which  was  necessary  before  she  could  claim  the 
government  subsidy.  In  the  run  to  the  east- 
ward, the  ship  had  averaged  for  the  whole  pas- 
sage 25  knots;  therefore  to  win  the  coveted 
prize,  it  was  necessary,  on  the  return  passage 
to  New  York,  to  maintain  an  average  of  24 
knots.  As  it  happened,  two  hours  out  from 
Queenstown  it  began  to  blow  hard  from  the 
southwest,  and  for  the  next  four  days  the  wind, 
veering  from  southwest  to  northwest,  never  fell 
below  the  strength  of  half  a  gale.  On  the  fourth 
day  out  the  wind  rose  to  full  cyclonic  force,  and 
against  the  most  tempestuous  weather  that  the 
North  Atlantic  can  show,  the  ship  was  driven 
for  twenty-four  hours  into  what  the  captain's 
log-book  designated  as  "  enormous  head  seas." 
She  averaged  a  speed  of  23  knots  for  the  whole 
four  days  of  heavy  weather,  and  came  through 
the  ordeal  without  starting  a  single  rivet,  or 
showing  any  signs  of  undue  strain  in  her 
roughly-handled  hull. 

The  large  and  powerful  passenger  steamer  of 
to-day  is  proof  against  fatal  damage  due  to 
wind  and  sea.    True  it  is  that  these  ships  occa- 
sionally reach  New  York  after  a  stormy  pas- 
[39] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

sage,  with  porthole  glasses  broken,  windows 
smashed,  and  rails  and  other  light -fittings  car- 
ried away;  but  these  are  minor  damages  which 
in  no  way  affect  the  integrity  of  the  ship  as  a 
whole. 

If,  then,  the  shipbuilder  has  made  such  won- 
derful strides  in  the  strength  of  his  construc- 
tion and  in  the  development  of  engine  power, 
is  it  not  a  strange  anomaly  that  he  should  have 
so  far  failed  in  his  attempt  to  provide  against 
sinking  through  collision,  as  to  be  under  the 
necessity  of  advertising  the  fact,  by  crowding 
the  topmost  deck  with  appliances  for  saving 
the  lives  of  the  passengers  when  the  ship  goes 
down? 

But  it  will  be  objected  that,  even  if  the  ship 
were  made  so  far  unsinkable  that  she  might 
act  as  her  own  lifeboat,  there  would  yet  remain 
the  risk  of  her  destruction  by  fire,  and  that,  if 
a  fierce  conflagration  occurred,  the  passengers 
would  have  to  abandon  ship  and  take  to  the 
boats.  The  objection  is  well  made,  and  if  it  be 
possible  to  introduce  structural  features  which 
will  render  ships  both  fireproof  and  unsinkable, 
the  thing  should  be  done. 

It  is  sincerely  to  be  hoped  that  one  outcome 
[40] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

of  the  present  world-wide  interest  in  the  sub- 
ject of  safety  at  sea,  will  be  a  searching  inves- 
tigation of  the  whole  question  of  fire  protec- 
tion. In  some  of  the  first-class  passenger  ships, 
notably  those  of  the  leading  German  companies, 
the  subject  has  been  given  the  attention  which 
it  merits;  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  a  large 
majority  of  the  vessels  engaged  in  the  passen- 
ger-carrying trade  contain  no  fire  protection  of 
a  structural  nature;  that  is  to  say,  the  spaces 
reserved  for  passenger  accommodations  are  not 
laid  out  with  any  view  to  limiting  the  ravages 
of  fire.  On  most  of  these  ships  a  fire  which 
once  obtained  strong  headway  might  sweep 
through  the  decks  devoted  to  passenger  accom- 
modations, without  meeting  with  any  fireproof 
wall  to  stay  its  progress. 

Now  the  most  effective  protection  against  a 
conflagration  on  board  ship  is  to  apply  the 
same  method  of  localisation  which  is  used  to 
such  good  effect  in  limiting  the  inflow  of  water 
resulting  from  collision.  The  steel  bulkhead 
and  the  steel  deck,  acting  as  fire  screens,  may 
be  made  as  effective  in  limiting  the  area  of 
a  fire  as  they  are  in  limiting  the  area  of 
flooding. 

[41] 


AN  UNSINKkBLE  TITANIC 

The  passenger  decks  should  be  intersected  at 
frequent  intervals  by  steel  bulkheads,  extend- 
ing from  side  to  side  of  the  ship  and  carried  up 
to  include  the  topmost  tier  of  staterooms. 
Where  the  alleyways  intersect  the  bulkheads, 
fireproof  doors  would  afford  all  the  necessary 
means  of  communication.  The  provision  of  many 
such  bulkheads,  coupled  with  the  installation  of 
an  ample  fire-main  service  and  the  faithful  prac- 
tice of  fire-drills,  would  render  the  loss  of  a 
ship  by  fire  practically  impossible. 

The  pathetic  reluctance  of  her  passengers  to 
leave  the  Titanic  for  the  lifeboats  was  justified, 
surely,  by  the  seeming  security  of  the  one  and 
frailty  of  the  other.  Perfectly  natural  was 
their  belief  that  the  mighty  ship  would  survive, 
at  least  until  the  rescuing  steamers  should 
reach  her  vicinity  and  render  the  transfer  of 
passengers  a  safe  operation.  Did  not  the  Re- 
public remain  afloat  for  many  hours  after  a  col- 
lision scarcely  less  terrible  than  this,  and  was 
not  the  Titanic  twice  her  size  and,  therefore, 
good  as  a  lifeboat  for  many  an  hour  to  come? 

In  considering  the  excellent  service  rendered 
by  the  lifeboats  of  the  Republic  and  the  Titanic, 
it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  weather  con- 
[42] 


PROVISIONING  THE  BOATS  DURING  A  BOAT  DRILL 


Courtesy  of  Scientific  American 

LOADING  AND  LOWERING  BOATS,  STOWED  ATHWARTSHIPS 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

ditions  happened  to  be  very  favourable.  The 
launching  of  lifeboats  in  rough  weather  is  a 
difficult  and  perilous  operation.  Frequently  the 


in  -  n  n_- n 


Courtesy  of  Scientific  American 

BOAT  DECK  OF  TITANIC,  SHOWING,  IN  BLACK,  PLAN  FOR  STOW-    I 
ING  EXTRA  BOATS,  TO  BRING  TOTAL  ACCOMMODATIONS  UP 
TO  3,100  PERSONS 

sinking  ship  will  have  a  heavy  list;  if  she  lists 
to  starboard,  the  boats  on  that  side  can  be 
launched  well  clear  of  the  ship,  but  the  boats  on 
the  port  or  higher  side  cannot  be  so  launched. 
As  they  are  lowered,  they  will  come  in  contact 
with  the  side  of  the  ship  and  be  damaged  or 
capsized.  Furthermore,  should  the  ship  be 
rolling,  the  boats  are  liable  to  be  swung  vio- 
lently against  the  vessel  and  their  sides  may  be 
crushed  in  or  heavily  strained,  rendering  them 
unseaworthy.  Had  a  heavy  sea,  nay,  even  a 
moderate  sea,  been  running  at  the  time  of  the 
Titanic  disaster,  how  long  would  her  heavily 
loaded  boats  have  survived  in  water  that  was 
infested  with  ice  floes'?  Their  helplessness  will 
be  more  evident  when  we  remember  that  they 
weighed  between  one  and  two  tons,  and  that 
[45] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

when  they  were  loaded  down  with  sixty-five 
people,  the  total  weight  must  have  been  about 
six  tons.  Now  a  craft  of  six  tons'  displace- 
ment requires  considerable  handling,  and  the 
two  or  three  sailors  allotted  to  each  boat, 
jammed  in,  as  they  were,  among  crowded  pas- 
sengers, would  have  been  powerless  in  heavy 
weather  to  keep  the  boat  from  broaching  broad- 
side to  the  sea  and  capsizing. 

The  demand,  then,  for  unsinkable  ships  is  jus- 
tified by  the  fact  that  the  lifeboat  is  at  best  but  a 
poor  makeshift — that  to  put  several  thousand 
people  adrift  in  mid-ocean  is  to  expose  them  to 
the  risk  of  ultimate  death  by  starvation  or 
drowning. 

However,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  ninety-five 
passenger  ships  out  of  every  hundred  are  built 
with  the  single  skin,  low  bulkheads,  and  non- 
watertight  decks,  which  characterised  the  Ti- 
tanic, it  is  certain  that  the  cry:  "  A  lifeboat 
seat  for  every  passenger  "  is  fully  justified. 
The  problem  of  housing  the  large  number  that 
would  be  required  presents  no  insuperable  diffi- 
culties, and  there  are  several  alternative  plans 
on  which  the  boats  might  be  disposed.  On  page 
45  will  be  found  a  proposed  arrangement,  re- 
[46] 


I 

o 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

produced  by  the  courtesy  of  the  "  Scientific 
American, "  which  shows  in  white  the  twenty 
boats  actually  carried  by  the  Titcwic,  and 
in  black  the  additional  boats  which  would 
be  necessary  to  increase  the  total  accommoda- 
tion to  about  3,100  people.  This  plan  would 
necessitate  the  sacrifice  of  some  of  the  deck- 
house structures.  Between  each  pair  of  smoke- 
stacks two  lines  of  four  boats  each  are  stowed 
athwartships.  The  boat  chocks  are  provided 
with  gunmetal  wheels,  which  run  in  transverse 
tracks  sunk  in  the  deck.  Along  each  side  of 
the  boat-deck  there  is  a  continuous  line  of 
boats. 

Another  plan  would  be  to  take  advantage  of 
the  full  capacity  of  the  Welin  davit  with  which 
the  Titanic  was  equipped,  which  is  capable  of 
handling  two  or  even  three  boats  stowed 
abreast.  Three  lines  of  boats  carried  on  each 
side  of  the  long  boat-deck  of  a  modern  liner 
would  provide  ample  accommodation  for  every 
person  on  board. 

But  we  repeat — and  the  point  cannot  be  too 
strongly  urged — that  however  complete  the 
lifeboat  accommodation  may  be,  it  is  at  the 
best  a  makeshift. 

[49] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

The  demand  that  every  ship  that  is  launched 
in  the  future  shall  be  so  far  unsinkable  as  to 
serve  as  its  own  lifeboat  in  case  of  serious  dis- 
aster is  perfectly  reasonable;  for  there  are  cer- 
tain first-class  transatlantic  liners  in  service 
to-day — notably  in  certain  leading  English 
and  German  lines — which  fulfil  this  condi- 
tion. Considerations  both  of  humanity  and  self- 
interest  should  lead  to  the  adoption  of  similar 
principles  of  construction  by  every  passenger 
steamship  company.  It  is  possible  that  the 
time  will  come,  and  it  may  indeed  be  very  close 
at  hand,  when  the  most  attractive  page  in  the 
illustrated  steamship  pamphlet  will  be  one  con- 
taining plans  of  the  ships,  in  which  the  safe- 
guards against  sinking — such  as  side  bunkers, 
high  bulkheads,  and  watertight  decks — are 
clearly  delineated. 


[50] 


CHAPTER  IV 

SAFETY  LIES  IN  SUBDIVISION 

OTHER  things  being  equal,  the  protection  of  a 
ship  against  sinking  is  exactly  proportionate  to 
the  number  of  separate  watertight  compart- 
ments into  which  the  interior  of  her  hull  is  sub- 
divided. If  she  contains  no  watertight  parti- 
tions whatsoever,  her  sinking,  due  to  damage 
below  the  water-line,  is  a  mere  matter  of  time. 
If  the  inflow  exceeds  the  capacity  of  the  pumps, 
water  will  flow  into  the  ship  until  all  buoyancy 
is  lost.  Protection  against  sinking  is  obtained 
by  dividing  the  interior  of  the  hull  into  a  num- 
ber of  compartments  by  means  of  strong,  water- 
tight partitions,  or  bulkheads.  Usually,  these 
are  placed  transversely  to  the  ship,  extending 
from  side  to  side  and  from  the  bottom  to  a 
height  of  one  or  two  decks  above  the  water- 
line.  They  are  built  of  steel  plates,  stiffened 
by  vertical  I-beams,  angle-bars,  or  other  suit- 
able members.  The  bulkheads  are  strongly 
riveted  to  the  bottom,  sides,  and  decks  of  the 
ship,  and  the  joints  are  carefully  caulked,  so 
[51] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

as  to  secure  a  perfectly  tight  connection.  In 
the  standard  construction  for  merchant  ships, 
as  used  in  the  Titanic,  the  bulkheads  are  placed 
transversely  to  the  length  of  the  ship,  and  the 
number  of  separate  compartments  is  just  one 
more  than  the  number  of  bulkheads,  ten  such 
bulkheads  giving  eleven  compartments,  fifteen, 
as  in  the  Titanic,  giving  sixteen  compartments, 
and  so  on.  In  the  case  of  a  few  high-class  mer- 
chant steamers,  built  to  meet  special  require- 
ments as  to  safety,  bulkheads  are  run  length- 
wise through  the  ship.  These  longitudinal 
bulkheads,  intersecting  the  transverse  bulk- 
heads, greatly  increase  the  factor  of  safety  due 
to  subdivision;  for  it  is  evident  that  one  such, 
running  the  full  length  of  the  ship,  would  dou- 
ble, two  would  treble,  and  three  would  quad- 
ruple the  number  of  separate  compartments. 

The  bulkhead  subdivision  above  described  is 
all  done  in  vertical  planes.  Its  object  is  to  re- 
strict the  water  to  such  compartments  as 
(through  collision  or  grounding)  may  have  been 
opened  to  the  sea.  As  the  water  enters,  the 
ship,  because  of  the  loss  of  buoyancy,  will  sink 
until  the  buoyancy  of  the  undamaged  compart- 
ments restores  equilibrium  and  the  ship  as- 
[52] 


HYDRAULICALLY-OPERATED,  WATERTIGHT  DOOR  IN 
AN  ENGINE-ROOM  BULKHEAD 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

smnes  a  new  position,  with  the  water  in  the 
damaged  compartments  at  the  same  level  as 
the  sea  outside.  This  position  is  shown  in  Fig. 
2,  page  57.  It  must  be  carefully  noted,  how- 
ever, that  this  condition  can  exist  only  if  the 
bulkheads  are  carried  high  enough  to  prevent 
the  water  in  the  damaged  compartments  from 
rising  above  them  and  flowing  over  the  tops  of 
the  bulkheads  into  adjoining  compartments. 

In  addition  to  lateral  and  longitudinal  sub- 
division by  means  of  vertical  bulkheads,  the 
hull  may  be  further  subdivided  by  means  of 
horizontal  partitions  in  the  form  of  watertight 
decks — a  system  which  is  universally  adopted 
in  the  navies  of  the  world.  For  it  is  evident 
that  if  the  ship  shown  in  Fig.  2,  page  57,  were 
provided  with  a  watertight  deck,  say  at  the 
level  of  the  water-line,  as  shown  in  Fig.  1,  page 
57,  the  water  could  rise  only  to  the  height  of 
that  deck,  where  it  would  be  arrested.  The 
amount  of  water  entering  the  vessel  would  be, 
say,  only  one-half  to  two-thirds  of  that  received 
in  the  case  of  the  vessel  shown  in  Fig.  2. 

If  ships  that  are  damaged  below  the  water- 
line  always  settled  in  the  water  on  an  even  keel, 
that  is  to  say  without  any  change  of  trim,  the 
[55] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

loss  through  collisions  would  be  greatly  re- 
duced. But  for  obvious  reasons,  the  damage 
usually  occurs  in  the  forward  part  of  the  ship, 
and  the  flooding  of  compartments  leads  to  a 
change  of  trim,  setting  the  ship  down  by  the 
head,  as  shown  in  Figs.  3  and  4.  If  the  trans- 
verse bulkheads  are  of  limited  height,  and  ex- 
tend only  to  about  10  feet  above  the  normal 
water-line,  the  settling  of  the  bow  may  soon 
bring  the  bulkhead  deck  (the  deck  against 
which  the  bulkheads  terminate)  below  the 
water.  If,  as  is  too  often  the  case,  this  deck  is 
not  watertight — that  is  to  say,  if  it  is  pierced 
by  hatch  openings,  stair  or  ladder-ways,  venti- 
lator shafts,  etc.,  which  are  not  provided  with 
watertight  casings  or  hatch  covers,  the  water 
will  flow  aft  alorg  the  deck,  and  find  its  way 
through  these  openings  into  successive  com- 
partments, gradually  destroying  the  reserve 
buoyancy  of  the  ship  until  she  goes  down.  The 
vessels  shown  in  Figs.  3  and  4  are  similar  as 
to  their  subdivision,  each  containing  thirteen 
compartments ;  but  in  Fig.  3  the  bulkheads  are 
shown  carried  only  to  the  upper  deck,  say  10 
feet  above  the  water,  whereas  in  Fig.  4  they 
extend  to  the  saloon  deck,  one  deck  higher,  or, 
[56] 


- 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 


by  transverse  watertight  partitions  (see  plan  of 
Mauretania,  Fig.  3,  page  129),  placed  centrally 
between  the  main  transverse  bulkheads  of  the 
ship.  A  further  and  most  effective  means  for 
protecting  the  buoyancy  is  to  construct  the  ship 
with  a  double  skin  up  to  and  preferably  a  few 
feet  above  the  water-line.  The  inner  skin 
should  extend  from  the  first  bulkhead  abaft  the 
engine-room  to  the  first  or  collision  bulkhead, 
forward.  This  construction  merely  involves 
carrying  the  inner  floor  plating  of  the  double 
bottom  up  the  sides  of  the  ship  to  the  under 
side  of  the  lower  deck.  As  all  merchant  ships 
are  built  with  a  double  bottom  (see  page  107), 
the  cost  of  thus  providing  a  double  skin  below 
the  water-line  is  small  in  proportion  to  the 
security  against  flooding  which  it  affords. 

The  description  of  the  Tifanic,  published  at 
the  time  of  her  launch,  stated  that  any  two  of 
her  adjoining  compartments  could  be  flooded 
without  endangering  the  safety  of  the  ship,  and 
the  question  must  frequently  have  occurred  to 
the  lay  mind  as  to  why  the  ability  of  the  ship 
to  sustain  flooding  of  her  interior  was  confined 
to  two,  and  not  extended  to  include  three  or 
even  more  compartments. 
[61] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

The  ability  to  stand  the  flooding  of  two  com- 
partments only  is  not  peculiar  to, the  Titanic. 
It  represents  the  standard  practice  which  is  fol- 
lowed in  all  passenger  ships,  the  spacing  and 
height  of  whose  bulkheads  is  determined  in 
accordance  with  certain  stipulations  of  the 
British  Board  of  Trade.  These  stipulations,  as 
given  by  Prof.  J.  H.  Biles  of  Glasgow  Univer- 
sity, in  his  book  "  Design  and  Construction  of 
Ships, "  are  as  follows: 

"A  vessel  is  considered  to  be  safe,  even  in  the  event  of  serious 
damage,  if  she  is  able  to  keep  afloat  with  two  adjoining  compart- 
ments in  free  communication  with  the  sea.  The  vessel  must  there- 
fore have  efficient  transverse  watertight  bulkheads  so  spaced  that 
when  any  two  adjoining  compartments  are  open  to  the  sea, 
the  uppermost  deck  to  which  all  the  bulkheads  extend  is  not 
brought  nearer  to  the  surface  of  the  water  than  a  certain  pre- 
scribed margin. 

"The  watertight  deck  referred  to  is  called  the  bulkhead  deck. 
The  line  past  which  the  vessel  may  not  sink  is  called  the  margin 
of  safety  line. 

"The  margin  of  safety  line,  as  defined  in  the  above  report,  is  a 
line  drawn  round  the  side  at  a  distance  amidships  of  three-one- 
hundredths  of  the  depth  at  side  at  that  place  below  the  bulkhead 
deck,  and  gradually  approaching  it  toward  the  aft  end,  where  it 
may  be  three-two-hundredths  of  the  same  depth  below  it." 

By  referring  to  the  diagrams  on  page  66 

showing  the  disposition  of  bulkheads  on  certain 

notable  ships,  it  will  be  seen  that,  in  the  case  of 

the  Titanic,  the  application  of  the  Board  of 

[62] 


CLOSING,   FRCM  THE   BRIDGE,    ALL   WATERTIGHT   DOORS 
THROUGHOUT  THE  SHIP  BY  PULLING  A  LEVER 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

Trade  rule  called  for  the  extension  .of  the  bulk- 
heads amidships  only  to  the  upper  deck,  which, 
at  the  loaded  draft  of  34  feet,  was  only  10  feet 
above  the  water-line!  Compare  this  with  the 
safe  construction  adopted  by  Brunei  and  Scott 
Eussell  over  fifty-four  years  ago,  who,  in  con- 
structing the  Great  Eastern,  extended  all  the 
bulkheads  (see  page  83)  to  the  topmost  deck, 
fully  30  feet  above  the  water-line. 

Before  leaving  the  question  of  bulkheads,  the 
writer  would  enter  a  strong  protest  against 
the  present  practice  of  placing  watertight 
doors  in  the  main  bulkheads  below  the  water- 
line.  They  are  put  there  generally  for  the  con- 
venience of  the  engine-  and  boiler-room  forces, 
whose  duties  render  it  necessary  for  them  to 
pass  from  compartment  to  compartment.  As 
at  present  constructed,  these  doors  are  of  the 
sliding  type,  and  they  can  be  closed  simul- 
taneously from  the  bridge,  or  separately,  by 
hand.  The  safer  plan  is  to  permit  no  bulk- 
head doors  below  the  water-line,  and  provide 
in  their  place  elevators  or  ladders,  enclosed  in 
watertight  trunks.  Access  from  compartment 
to  compartment  must  then  be  had  by  way  of  the 
bulkhead  deck. 

[65] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

The  advantage  of  lofty  bulkheads  was  ad- 
mirably illustrated  in  the  case  of  the  City  of 
Paris  and  the  City  of  New  York,  designed  by 
Mr.  Biles  in  1888.  Although  these  were  small 
ships  compared  with  the  Titcmic,  their  fourteen 
bulkheads  were  carried  one  deck  higher.  Biles 
laid  down  the  rule  that  no  doors  were  to  be  cut 


I9U 


LUSITANIA 


J85d 


I   I 


OR  CAT    EASTERN 


A  COMPAKISON  OP  BULKHEAD  PKOTECTION  IN  SOME  NOTABLE 
SHIPS 

through  the  bulkheads,  and  in  spite  of  strenu- 
ous objections  on  the  grounds  of  passenger  ac- 
commodation and  general  convenience  in  the 
operation  of  the  ship,  he  carried  his  point. 
The  wisdom  of  this  construction  was  demon- 
[66] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

strated  years  later,  when,  as  a  result  of  an  ac- 
cident to  her  engines,  the  two  largest  adjoining 
compartments  of  the  City  of  Paris  were  flooded, 
at  a  time  when  the  ship  was  150  miles  off  the 
coast  of  Ireland.  There  was  no  wireless  in 
those  days  to  send  out  its  call  for  help,  and  for 
three  days  the  ship  drifted  in  a  helpless  con- 
dition. Thanks  to  her  lofty  bulkheads,  the 
good  ship  stood  the  ordeal  and  was  finally 
brought  into  port  without  the  loss  of  a  single 
passenger. 

BULKHEAD  SPACING  ON  NOTABLE  SHIPS 


NAME 

Date  of  Building 

*  Registered 
Length,  Feet 

No.  of  Main 
W.  T.  BulkheadB 

Average  Length  of 
Compartments 

Per  cent,  of 
Length 

Titanic  

1911 

852.5 

15 

53 

6.2 

Lusitania  

1907 

7620 

16 

45 

59 

George  Washington  .  .  . 
Great  Eastern 

1908 
1854-59 

699.0 
680  0 

13 
9 

50 

68 

7.1 

10  0 

Carmania 

1905 

6500 

15 

50 

78 

Campania  

1893 

601  0 

8 

67 

11.1 

New  York  

1888 

517.0 

14 

37 

6.7 

Alma            .   . 

1894 

270  7 

11 

23 

8.3 

*  Figures  in  this  column  represent  the  length  between  perpen- 
diculars. 

An  interesting  study  of  bulkhead  practice  in 
some  notable  ships  is  afforded  by  the  table  and 
[67] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

diagrams  which  are  herewith  reproduced  by  the 
courtesy  of  "  Engineering/'  In  the  matter  of 
height  of  bulkheads  above  the  water-line,  the 
Great  Eastern  stands  first,  followed  by  the 
Paris,  the  Lusitcwia,  the  Campania,  and  the 
Titanic. 


[68] 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  UNSINKABLE   GEE  AT  EA8TEEN  OF  1858 

THE  term  "  unsinkable,"  as  applied  to  ships, 
is  used  throughout  the  present  work  in  an  ac- 
commodated sense.  There  never  was  but  one 
unsinkable  craft,  and  for  that  we  must  go  back 
to  the  age  of  primitive  man,  who  doubtless  pad- 
dled himself  across  the  rivers  and  lakes  upon  a 
roughly  fashioned  log  of  wood. 

In  the  modern  sense,  an  unsinkable  ship  is 
one  which  cannot  be  sunk  by  any  of  the  ordi- 
nary accidents  of  the  open  sea,  such  as  those 
due  to  stress  of  weather,  or  to  collision  with 
icebergs,  derelicts,  or  some  other  ship. 

Can  such  a  ship  be  built? 

Not  only  is  it  feasible  to  construct  vessels  of 
this  type  to-day;  but,  as  far  back  as  the  year 
1858,  there  was  launched  a  magnificent  ship,  the 
Great  Eastern,  in  which  the  provisions  against 
foundering  were  so  admirably  worked  out  that 
probably  she  would  have  survived  even  the  ter- 
rific collision  which  proved  the  undoing  of  the 
Titanic. 

[69] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

The  Great  Eastern  represented  the  joint 
labours  of  the  two  most  distinguished  engineers 
of  the  middle  period  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, I.  K.  Brunei  and  John  Scott  Russell.  The 
former  was  responsible  for  the  original  idea  of 
the  ship,  and  it  was  he  who  suggested  that  it 
should  be  built  upon  the  principles  adopted  in 
the  rectangular,  tubular  bridge  that  had  re- 
cently been  built  across  the  Menai  Straits.  To 
Scott  Russell,  as  naval  architect,  were  due  the 
lines  and  dimensions  of  the  ship  and  the  elabo- 
rate system  of  transverse  and  longitudinal 
bulkheads. 

Those  were  the  days  when  the  engineer  was 
supreme.  He  worked  with  a  free  hand;  and 
these  two  men  set  out  to  build  a  ship  which 
should  be  not  only  the  largest  and  strongest, 
but  also  the  safest  and  most  unsinkable  vessel 
afloat.  How  they  succeeded  is  shown  by  the 
fact,  that  on  one  of  her  voyages  to  New  York, 
the  Great  Eastern  ran  over  some  submerged 
rocks  off  Montauk  Point,  Long  Island,  and  tore 
two  great  rents  in  her  outer  skin,  whose  aggre- 
gate area  was  equivalent  to  a  rupture  10  feet 
wide  and  80  feet  long.  In  spite  of  this  dam- 
age, which  was  probably  greater  in  total  area 
[70] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

than  that  suffered  by  the  Titanic,  the  ship  came 
safely  to  New  York  under  her  own  steam. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  in  undertaking 
to  build  a  ship  of  the  then  unprecedented  length 
of  692  feet,  the  designers  were  as  much  con- 
cerned with  the  question  of  her  strength  as 
with  that  of  her  ability  to  keep  afloat  in  case  of 
under-water  damage.  But  it  so  happens  that 
the  very  forms  of  construction  which  conduce 
to  strength  are  favourable  also  to  flotation — a 
fact  which  renders  all  the  more  reasonable  the 
demand  that,  in  all  future  passenger-carrying 
steamships,  a  return  shall  be  made  to  the  non- 
sinkable  construction  of  this  remarkable  ship 
of  over  fifty  years  ago. 

Let  it  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  Brunei 
and  Eussell  were  insensible  to  the  risks  of 
foundering  through  under-water  damage,  or 
that  the  fully  protected  buoyancy  of  this  vessel 
was  accidental  rather  than  the  result  of  careful 
planning.  For  in  the  technical  descriptions  of 
the  ship,  it  is  stated  that  the  inner  skin  was 
carried  forward  right  up  to  the  bow,  as  a  pro- 
tection against  "  collision  with  an  iceberg," 
and  it  is  further  stated  that  the  combination  of 
longitudinal  and  transverse  bulkheads  afforded 
[73] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

such  complete  subdivision,  that  "  several  com- 
partments might  be  opened  to  the, sea  without 
endangering  the  ship." 

So  remarkable  in  every  respect  was  the 
Great  Eastern,  so  admirable  a  model  is  she  of 
safe  construction,  even  for  the  naval  architect 
of  to-day,  that  a  somewhat  extended  descrip- 
tion of  the  construction  of  the  vessel  will  doubt- 
less be  welcome. 

It  was  at  the  close  of  the  year  1851  that 
Brunei  made  a  study  of  the  problem  of  build- 
ing a  vessel  of  sufficient  size  to  carry  enough 
coal  to  make  a  round  voyage  to  Australia  and 
back,  and  at  the  same  time  afford  comfortable 
accommodations  for  an  unusually  large  number 
of  passengers  and  carry  a  large  amount  of 
freight.  With  the  thoroughness  and  frank 
open-mindedness  which  distinguished  the  man, 
he  sought  for  information  and  advice  from 
every  promising  quarter.  Sir  William  White 
is  of  the  opinion  that  all  the  leading  features  of 
the  design,  such  as  the  structure,  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  propelling  machinery,  and  the  de- 
termination of  dimensions,  originated  with 
Brunei,  who  said  at  the  time:  "  I  never  em- 
barked on  any  one  thing  to  which  I  have  so 
[74] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

entirely  devoted  myself  and  to  which  I  have 
devoted  so  much  time,  thought,  and  labour;  on 
the  success  of  which  I  have  staked  so  much 
reputation,  and  to  which  I  have  so  largely  com- 
mitted myself  and  those  who  were  supposed  to 
place  faith  in  me."  Sir  William  states  that, 
after  going  carefully  through  Brunei's  notes 
and  reports,  his  admiration  for  the  remarkable 
grasp  and  foresight  therein  displayed  has  been 
greatly  increased.  "  In  regard  to  the  pro- 
vision of  ample  structural  strength  with  a  mini- 
mum of  weight,  the  increase  of  safety  by  water- 
tight subdivision  and  cellular  double-bottom, 
the  design  of  propelling  machinery  and  boilers, 
with  a  view  to  economy  of  coal  and  great  endur- 
ance for  long-distance  steaming;  the  selection 
of  forms  and  dimensions  likely  to  minimise  re- 
sistance and  favour  good  behaviour  at  sea, 
Brunei  displayed  a  knowledge  of  principles 
such  as  no  other  ship  designer  of  that  time 
seems  to  have  possessed."  The  value  of  this 
tribute  will  be  understood  when  it  is  borne  in 
mind  that  Sir  William  White  is  the  most  widely 
known  architect  of  the  day. 

The  principal  dimensions  of  the  Great  East- 
ern were  as  follows: 

[75] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 


PAETICULAES  OF  THE   GREAT  EASTERN 

Length  between  perpendiculars 680  feet 

Length  on  upper  deck 692 

Extreme  breadth  of  hull 83 

Width  over  paddle-boxes 120 

Depth  from  upper  deck  to  keel 58 

Draught  of  water  (laden) 28 

Weight  of  iron  used  in  construction 10,000  tons 


The  ship  was  propelled  by  two  separate  en- 
gines, driving  respectively  paddle-wheels  and  a 
single  propeller.  The  engines  for  the  paddle- 
wheels  were  of  the  oscillating  type.  The  cylin- 
ders were  four  in  number,  74  inches  in  diameter, 
by  14-feet  stroke,  and  each  one  in  the  finished 
condition  weighed  28  tons.  The  paddle-wheels 
were  56  feet  in  diameter.  Steam  for  these 
engines  was  supplied  by  four,  double-ended, 
tubular  boilers,  each  17  feet  9  inches  long,  17 
feet  6  inches  wide,  and  13  feet  9  inches  high, 
and  weighing,  with  water,  95  tons.  Each  boiler 
contained  10  furnaces.  The  screw  engines, 
which  were  placed  in  the  aftermost  compart- 
ment of  the  machinery  spaces,  were  of  the  hori- 
zontal, opposed  type ;  there  were  four  cylinders, 
84  inches  in  diameter,  by  4-feet  stroke,  and  each 
one,  in  the  finished  condition,  weighed  39  tons. 
[76J 


k    II    Jl  = 

1!        ".....,"" 

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v'-^Ux 

RECI  PROCAT- 
ING 

PROPELLER 
ENGINE 

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.'i".T';U, 

BOILERS 

i'7--'.'  '•'•'. 

>r^ri-7 

BOILERS 

E 

•'  ;"•'  %  ;; 

V'"'  "11"'     n'= 

'•'.'•  !''-\  v-''vv'X:i-V'''  •''---"'- 
^'ii"'"V|V  "V;::iir 

•>'-:A'&£H 

!''"a""CT 

'-"'"""''  ''^-^ 

Length,  692  feet;   beam,  83  feet;   depth,  58  feet.     Subdivision:     Double 
sub-bulkheads  35  feet  high,  extending  to  lower  decl 

LONGITUDINAL  SECTION  AND  E 


1    II        II  — 

"       .    ",      —  T 

-    .i<:.   H^-    n,_j 

OSCILLATING, 

,'AODLEWHEEL 

ENGINE 

1 

OILERS 

BOILERS 

i.    ll'   "       M:== 

^©V 

••"ii"''ii^'"li''''ii 

line  main  bulkheads,   53  feet  high,   extending  to   upper  deck,  and  six 
longitudinal  bulkheads  through  machinery  spaces. 

1  THE  GREAT  EASTERN,  1858 


3  s. 

— "   c 

n  I 


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25 


-r    s 
-3      /- 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

The  propeller  shafting,  150  feet  in  length, 
weighed  60  tons.  The  four-bladed  propeller 
was  24  feet  in  diameter.  Steam  was  supplied 
to  these  engines  by  six  tubular  boilers  of  about 
the  same  dimensions  as  those  for  the  paddle- 
wheel  engines.  The  working  pressure  was  25 
pounds  per  square  inch. 

The  estimated  speed  of  the  Great  Eastern 
was  15  knots;  her  best  actual  performance  on 
an  extended  voyage  was  an  average  speed  of 
14  knots,  which  was  realised  on  one  of  her  trips 
to  New  York.  She  was  designed  to  carry  4,000 
passengers,  namely  800  first,  2,000  second,  and 
1,200  third  class,  besides  a  crew  of  400.  She 
had  a  capacity  of  5,000  tons  of  cargo,  and  12,- 
000  tons  of  coal.  When  fitted  up  for  the  accom- 
modation of  troops  she  could  carry  10,000. 
Fully  laden  with  passengers,  cargo,  and  coal, 
she  displaced,  on  a  draft  of  30  feet,  about 
27,000  tons; — her  actual  draft  was  from  26 
to  28  feet.  The  accommodations  for  passengers 
would  have  done  credit  to  one  of  our  modern 
liners.  There  were  five  saloons  on  the  upper, 
and  another  five  on  the  lower  deck.  The  upper- 
most deck  afforded  two  unbroken  and  spacious 
promenades,  one  on  each  side  of  the  ship,  each 
[79] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

of  which  was  20  feet  wide  and  over  "600  feet  in 
length. 

Because  of  the  great  length  of  the  ship  it  was 
decided  to  launch  her  sideways, — a  disastrous 
experiment  which  cost  the  company  dear.  The 
launching  ways  yielded  under  the  great  weight, 
the  ship  jammed  on  the  ways,  and  she  had  to  be 
laboriously  forced  into  the  Eiver  Thames,  inch 
by  inch,  by  the  aid  of  powerful  hydraulic  jacks. 
The  great  cost  of  the  launching,  which  occupied 
two  and  a  half  months '  time,  caused  the  failure 
of  the  original  company,  and  the  ship  was  sold 
for  $900,000  to  a  new  company,  who  completed 
her  in  1859.  She  made  several  voyages  to 
America;  and  although  in  this  service  she  was 
unprofitable,  the  great  ship  proved  that  she  was 
staunch,  eminently  seaworthy,  and  fast  for  a 
passenger  ship  of  that  period.  Although  the 
Great  Eastern  was  never  employed  on  the  Aus- 
tralian service,  for  which  she  was  designed, 
she  was  usefully  employed  in  1865  in  laying  two 
of  the  Atlantic  telegraph  cables,  and,  subse- 
quently, in  similar  service  in  other  parts  of  the 
world — a  work  for  which  her  great  strength 
and  size  rendered  her  peculiarly  adapted. 
After  serving  an  inglorious  career  in  the  hands 
[80] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

of  the  showman,  the  Great  Eastern  was  sold 
for  the  value  of  her  metal  and  was  broken  up  in 
the  autumn  of  1888. 

The  financial  failure  of  this  ship  was  not  due 
to  any  excessive  first  cost,  resulting  from  the 
very  thorough  character  of  her  construction, 
but  rather  to  certain  economic  conditions  of  her 
time.  Traffic  across  the  Atlantic,  both  freight 
and  passenger,  was  as  yet  in  its  infancy;  and 
even  if  full  cargoes  had  been  available,  the 
loading  facilities  of  those  days  were  so  inade- 
quate, that  the  ship  would  have  been  delayed  in 
port  for  an  unconscionable  length  of  time.  Fur- 
thermore, fuel  consumption,  in  that  early  stage 
of  development  of  the  steam  engine,  was  ex- 
cessive, the  coal  consumed  per  horsepower  per 
hour  being  about  three  and  one-half  to  four 
pounds,  as  compared  with  a  modern  consump- 
tion of  from  one  and  a  quarter  to  one  and  a 
half  pounds  per  horsepower. 

A  careful  study  of  the  construction  of  this 
remarkable  vessel  establishes  the  fact  that  over 
fifty  years  ago  Brunei  and  Scott  Eussell  pro- 
duced in  the  Great  Eastern  a  ship  which  stands 
as  a  model  for  all  time.  Eealising,  in  the  first 
place,  how  vulnerable  is  an  iron  vessel  which 
[81] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

carries  only  a  single  skin,  they  decided  to  pro- 
vide a  double  skin  and  construct  the  ship  with 
two  separate  hulls,  placed  one  within  the  other 
and  firmly  tied  together  by  a  system  of  con- 
tinuous longitudinal  and  lateral  web-plates  or 
frames.  By  reference  to  the  cross-section,  pub- 
lished on  page  83,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  double- 
skin  construction  extended  entirely  around  the 
hull,  and  was  carried]  up  to  a  continuous  plate- 
iron  lower  deck,  which  was  from  8  to  10  feet 
above  the  water-line,  the  distance  varying  with 
the  draft  of  the  ship.  The  two  skins  were  placed 
2  feet  10  inches  apart  and  they  were  tied  to- 
gether by  34  longitudinal  web-members,  which 
ran  the  entire  length  of  the  double  hull,  and 
divided  the  space  between  the  two  skins  into 
separate  watertight  compartments.  These  were 
themselves  further  subdivided  by  a  series  of 
transverse  webs  which  intersected  the  longi- 
tudinal webs.  The  cellular  construction  thus 
provided  extended  from  the  aftermost  bulkhead 
right  through  to  the  bow,  to  which  it  was  carried 
for  the  purpose  of  protecting  the  forward  part 
of  the  ship  against  the  effect  of  collision  with 
icebergs,  which  at  that  early  day  were  recog- 
nised as  constituting  a  serious  menace  to  navi- 
[82] 


o  o  I  o  o  |oo|  o  o  I  o  o  oo  oo  o  o  IP  o  |o  o  |o  o 


_    WATER 
==r=~    LINE 


GREAT  EASTERN       BUILT  1858 


Two  EXTREMES  IN  PROTECTION,  AND  A  COMPROMISE 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

gation.  The  inner  skin  was  not  continued  aft 
of  the  aftermost  bulkhead,  for  the  reason  that  at 
the  stern  it  would  have  been  unnecessary  and 
somewhat  inconvenient. 

The  double  hull  was  closed  in  by  a  watertight 
iron  deck  (the  lower  deck),  which  served  to 
entirely  separate  the  boiler-  and  engine-rooms 
and  the  holds  from  the  passenger  quarters. 
Above  the  lower  deck  the  hull  was  built  with  a 
single  skin,  which  terminated  at  a  flush,  con- 
tinuous, cellular  steel  deck,  corresponding  to 
the  shelter  deck  of  modern  steamships,  which 
extended  unbroken  from  stem  to  stern.  This 
deck  was  an  unusually  rigid  structure.  Its 
upper  and  lower  surfaces  were  each  one  inch  in 
thickness,  and  each  consisted  of  two  layers  of 
half -inch  plating  riveted  together.  The  double 
deck  thus  formed  was  two  feet  in  depth,  and  the 
intervening  space  was  intersected  by  longi- 
tudinal girders,  the  whole  construction  forming 
an  unusually  stiff  and  strong  watertight  deck, 
which  was  admirably  suited  to  meet  the 
heavy  tensional  and  compressive  stresses,  to 
which  a  ship  of  the  length  of  the  Great  East- 
ern is  subjected  when  driving  through  head 
seas. 

[85] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

The  watertight  subdivision  of  the  Great 
Eastern  was  more  complete  than  that  of  any 
ship  that  was  ever  constructed  for  the  merchant 
service,  more  thorough  even  than  that  of  recent 
passenger  ships  which  have  been  designed  for 
use  as  auxiliary  cruisers  in  time  of  war.  In 
addition  to  the  great  protection  afforded  by  her 
double  hull,  she  was  subdivided  by  nine  trans- 
verse bulkheads,  which  extended  from  the  bot- 
tom clear  through  to  the  upper  deck,  or  to  a 
height  of  30  feet  above  the  water-line.  Com- 
pare this  with  the  practice  followed  in  the 
Titanic  and  in  all  but  a  very  few  of  the  mer- 
chant ships  of  the  present  day,  whose  bulkheads 
are  carried  up  only  from  one-third  to  one-half 
of  that  height,  and  too  often  terminate  at  a  deck 
which  is  not,  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  term, 
watertight. 

In  addition  to  these  main  bulkheads,  the 
Great  Eastern  contained  six  additional  trans- 
verse bulkheads,  which  extended  to  the  iron 
lower  deck.  Five  of  these  were  contained  in 
the  machinery  spaces  and  one  was  placed  aft 
of  the  aftermost  main  bulkhead.  The  sub- 
merged portion  of  the  hull,  or  rather  all  that 
portion  of  it  lying  below  the  lower  deck,  was 
[86] 


From  an  old  photograph,  taken  in  1860 

GREAT  EASTERN,  LYING  AT  FOOT  OF  CANAL  STREET,  NORTH  RIVER, 

NEW  YORK 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

thus  divided  by  15  transverse  bulkheads  into  16 
separate  watertight  compartments. 

Not  content  with  this,  however,  Brunei  ran 
throughout  the  whole  of  the  machinery  and  en- 
gine spaces  two  longitudinal  bulkheads,  which 
extended  from  the  bottom  of  the  ship  to  the  top 
deck.  A  further  subdivision  consisted  of  a 
curved  steel  roof  which  separated  the  boiler- 
rooms  from  the  coal-bunkers  above  them.  Al- 
together the  hull  of  the  Great  Eastern  was  di- 
vided up  into  between  40  and  50  separate  water- 
tight compartments.  An  excellent  structural 
feature,  from  which  later  practice  has  made  a 
wide  departure,  was  the  fact  that  no  doors  were 
cut  through  the  bulkheads  below  the  lower  deck. 

Such  was  the  Great  Eastern,  a  marvel  in  her 
time  and  an  object  lesson,  even  to-day,  in  safe 
and  unsinkable  construction.  That  her  valu- 
able qualities  were  not  obtained  at  the  cost  of 
extravagance  in  the  use  of  material  is  one  of 
the  most  meritorious  features  of  her  design  and 
construction.  On  this  point  we  cannot  do  bet- 
ter than  quote  from  the  address  of  Sir  William 
White,  delivered  when  he  was  President  of  the 
Institution  of  Civil  Engineers:  "  I  have  most 
thoroughly  investigated  the  question  of  the 
[89] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

weight  absorbed  in  the  structure  o'f  the  Great 
Eastern,  and  my  conclusion  is  that  it  is  con- 
siderably less  than  that  of  steel-built  ships  of 
approximately  the  same  dimensions  and  of  the 
most  recent  construction.  Of  course  these  ves- 
sels are  much  faster,  have  more  powerful  en- 
gines, and  have  superstructures  for  passenger 
accommodation  towering  above  the  upper  deck. 
These  and  other  features  involve  additional 
weight;  and  the  Great  Eastern  has  the  advan- 
tage of  being  deeper  in  relation  to  her  length 
than  the  modern  ships.  After  making  full  al- 
lowance for  these  differences,  my  conclusion  is 
that  the  Great  Eastern  was  a  relatively  lighter 
structure,  although  at  the  time  she  was  built 
only  iron  plates  of  very  moderate  size  were 
available." 


[90] 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  SINKABLE  TITANIC 

IN  all  the  long  record  of  disasters  involving  the 
loss  of  human  life  there  is  none  which  appeals 
so  strongly  to  the  imagination  as  those  which 
have  occurred  upon  the  high  seas,  and  among 
these  the  loss  of  the  Titanic  stands  out  pre- 
eminent as  the  most  stupendous  and  heart- 
rending tragedy  of  them  all.  The  ship  itself 
was  not  only  the  latest  and  largest  of  those 
magnificent  ocean  liners  which,  because  of  their 
size  and  speed  and  luxurious  appointments, 
have  taken  such  a  strong  hold  upon  the  public 
imagination,  but  it  was  popularly  believed  that 
because  of  her  huge  proportions,  and  the  spe- 
cial precautions  which  had  been  taken  to  render 
her  unsinkable,  the  Titanic  was  so  far  proof 
against  the  ordinary  accidents  of  the  sea  as  to 
survive  the  severest  disaster  and  bring  her  pas- 
sengers safely  into  port. 

The  belief  that  the  Titanic  stood  for  the 
"  last  word  "  in  naval  architecture  certainly 
seemed  to  be  justified  by  the  facts.     She  was 
[91] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

not  a  contract-built  ship  in  the  coifimonly  ac- 
cepted sense  of  that  term.  On  the  contrary, 
she  was  built  under  a  system  which  conduces  to 
high-class  workmanship  and  eliminates  the 
temptations  to  cheap  work,  which  must  always 
exist  when  a  contract  is  secured  in  the  face  of 
keen  competition. 

The  famous  White  Star  Company  have 
pointed  with  pride  to  the  fact  that  the  excellence 
of  their  ships  was  due  largely  to  the  fact  that 
they  had  been  built  in  the  same  shipbuilding 
yard  and  under  an  arrangement  which  encour- 
aged the  builders  to  embody  in  the  ships  the 
most  careful  design  and  workmanship.  Under 
this  arrangement,  Messrs.  Harland  &  Wolff, 
of  Belfast,  build  the  White  Star  vessels  with- 
out entering  into  any  hard  and  fast  agreement 
as  to  the  price:  the  only  stipulation  of  this 
character  being  that,  when  the  ship  is  accepted, 
they  shall  be  paid  for  the  cost  of  the  ship,  plus 
a  certain  profit,  which  is  commonly  believed  to 
be  ten  per  cent. 

Of  the  strength  of  the  Titanic  and  the  general 

high  character  of  her  construction  there  can  be 

no  doubt  whatever.    Not  only  was  she  built  to 

the  requirements  of  the  Board  of  Trade  and 

[92] 


GREAT    EASTERN     1858 
FOUR    WATERTIGHT  COMPARTMENTS 


TITANIC          1912 

ONE     WATERTIGHT    COMPARTMENT 


Titanic  shows  omission   of   inner   skin,    longitudinal   bulkheads,, 
and  watertight  decks.     Transverse  bulkheads  aie  lower  by  20  feet. 

FIFTY  YEARS'  DECLINE  IN  SAFETY  CONSTRUCTION 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

the  insurance  companies,  but,  as  we  have 
noted,  she  was  constructed  by  the  leading  ship- 
building company  of  the  world,  under  condi- 
tions which  would  inspire  them  to  put  into  the 
world's  greatest  steamship  the  very  best  that 
the  long  experience  and  ample  facilities  of  the 
yard  could  produce. 

The  principal  dimensions  of  the  Titanic,  as 
furnished  by  her  owners,  were  as  follows: 

PAETICULABS  OF  THE  TITANIC 

Ft.    Ins. 

Length  over  all 882     9 

Length  between  perpendiculars 850     0 

Breadth  extreme 92     6 

Depth  moulded  to  shelter  deck 64     3 

Depth  moulded  to  bridge  deck 73     3 

Total  height  from  keel  to  navigating  bridge 104     0 

Load  draft 34     6 

Gross  tonnage 45,000 

Displacement  in  tons 60,000 

Indicated  horsepower  of  reciprocating  engines 38,000 

Shaft  horsepower  of  turbine  engine 22,000 

In  this  connection  the  following  table,  giving 
the  dimensions  of  the  most  notable  steamships, 
from  the  Great  Eastern  of  1858  to  the  Impera- 
tor  of  1913,  will  be  of  interest.  How  rapidly 
the  weight  (displacement)  increases  with  the 
length  of  these  large  ships,  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that,  although  in  length  the  Titanic  is  only 
[95] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

about  27  per  cent,  greater  than  the  Great 
Eastern,  in  displacement  she  exceeds  her  by 
considerably  over  100  per  cent. 

PARTICULABS  OF  NOTED  TKANSLANTIC  LJNEBS 


jl  "3 
®  ." 

a 

f 

1 

NAME 

& 

-Q  -5 

5  1 

i 

3, 

| 

• 

.2 

o 

5* 

PH 

5 

W 

Feet 

Feet  Ins. 

Feet  Ins. 

Tons 

Knots 

Great  Eastern  

1858 

680 

83.0 

58.0 

27,000 

7,650 

14.0 

City  of  Paris    i 

1888 

528 

630 

41.9 

13000 

20700 

21  8 

Teutonic  

1890 

565 

57.6 

42.2 

12,000 

19  500 

21  0 

Campania  

1893 

600 

65.0 

41.6 

18,000 

30000 

2201 

1895 

536 

63.0 

42.0 

16,000 

18000 

21  08 

K.  Wilhelm  der  Grosse. 

1897 

625 

66.0 

43.0 

20,890 

30,000 

22.5 

Oceanic  

1899 

685 

68.5 

49.0 

28,500 

27000 

207 

1900 

663 

67  0 

440 

23600 

36  000 

23  5 

Kaiser  Wilhelm  II  

1903 

678 

72.0 

52.6 

26,000 

38,000 

23.5 

Adriatic 

1907 

709 

756 

56.9 

40800 

16  000 

17  0 

1907 

760 

880 

606 

44640 

70000 

26  01 

La  France                    .  . 

1912 

685 

75.5 

52  10 

27,000 

45000 

235 

Titanic                         .  . 

1912 

850 

92.6 

64.3 

60,000 

60000 

225 

Imperator              

1913 

880 

96.0 

62.0 

65,000 

70000 

230 

The  general  structure  of  the  Titanic  is  shown 
by  the  midship  section,  page  83,  and  the  side 
elevation,  page  129.  For  about  550  feet  amid- 
ships she  contained  8  steel  decks,  the  boat 
deck,  promenade  deck,  bridge  deck,  shelter  deck, 
saloon  deck,  upper  deck,  middle  deck,  and  lower 
[96] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

deck.  The  highest  steel  deck  that  extended 
continuously  throughout  the  full  length  of  the 
ship  was  the  shelter  deck.  For  550  feet  amid- 
ships the  sideplating  of  the  ship  was  carried  up 
one  deck  higher  to  the  bridge  deck.  The 
moulded  or  plated  depth  of  the  ship  to  the  shel- 
ter deck  was  64  feet  3  inches  and  to  the  bridge 
deck  73  feet  3  inches.  This  great  depth  of  over 
73  feet,  in  conjunction  with  specially  heavy 
steel  decks  on  the  bridge  and  shelter  decks,  and 
the  doubling  of  the  plating  at  the  bilges,  (where 
the  bottom  rounds  up  into  the  side,)  conjoined 
with  the  deep  and  heavy  double  bottom,  served 
to  give  the  Titanic  the  necessary  strength  to 
resist  the  bending  stresses  to  which  her  long 
hull  was  subjected,  when  steaming  across  the 
heavy  seas  of  the  Atlantic.  The  doubling  of 
the  plating  on  the  bridge  and  shelter  decks 
served  the  same  purpose  as  the  cellular  steel 
construction  which,  as  mentioned  in  the  previ- 
ous chapter,  was  adopted  for  the  upper  deck  of 
the  Great  Eastern. 

The  dimensions  of  the  frames  and  plating  of 

the  hull  were  determined  by  the  builder's  long 

experience  in  the  construction  of  large  vessels. 

The  cellular  double  bottom,  which  extended  the 

[99] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

full  width  of  the  ship,  was  of  unusual  depth  and 
strength.  Throughout  the  ship,  its  depth  was  5 
feet  3  inches;  but  in  the  reciprocating  engine- 
room,  it  was  increased  to  6  feet  3  inches.  The 
keel  consisted  of  a  single  thickness  of  plating, 
11/2  inches  thick,  and  a  heavy,  flat  bar,  3  inches 
in  thickness  and  191/2  inches  wide.  Generally 
speaking,  the  shell  plates  were  6  feet  wide,  30 
feet  long,  and  2y2  to  3  tons  in  weight.  The 
largest  of  these  plates  was  36  feet  long  and 
weighed  41^  tons. 

Amidships,  the  framing,  which  consisted  of 
channel  sections  10  inches  in  depth,  was  spaced 
3  feet  apart.  Throughout  the  boiler-room 
spaces,  additional  frames,  2^  feet  deep,  were 
fitted  9  feet  apart,  and  in  the  engine-  and 
turbine-rooms,  similar  deep  frames  were  fitted 
on  every  second  frame,  6  feet  apart.  These 
heavy  web-frames  extended  up  to  the  middle 
deck,  a  few  feet  above  the  water-line,  and  added 
greatly  to  the  strength  and  stiffness  of  the  hull. 

Had  the  inside  plating  of  the  double  bottom 
been  carried  up  the  sides  and  riveted  on  the 
inner  flanges  of  these  frames,  as  shown  in  the 
sketch  on  page  107,  it  would  have  served  the 
purpose  of  an  inner  skin;  and  when  the  outer 
[100] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

skin  of  her  forward  boiler-rooms  was  rup- 
tured by  the  iceberg,  it  would  have  served 
to  prevent  the  inflow  of  water  to  these  two  large 
compartments.  Mr.  Ismay,  the  President  of 
the  International  Mercantile  Marine  Company, 
in  his  testimony  at  the  Senate  Investigation, 
stated  that  among  the  improvements,  which 
would  be  made  in  the  Gigantic,  now  under  con- 
struction for  the  company,  would  be  the  addi- 
tion of  an  inner  skin.  Doubtless  he  had  in  mind 
the  construction  above  suggested. 

The  10-inch  channel  frames  extended  from  the 
double  bottom  to  the  bridge  deck,  and  some  of 
these  bars  were  66  feet  in  length  and  weighed 
nearly  1  ton  apiece.  The  frames  were  tied  to- 
gether along  the  full  length  of  each  deck  by  the 
deck  beams  of  channel  section,  which,  through- 
out the  middle  portion  of  the  ship,  were  10 
inches  deep  and  weighed  as  high  as  114  tons 
apiece.  The  transverse  stiffness  of  the  framing 
was  assured  by  stout  bracket  knees,  riveted  to 
the  frames  and  deck  beams  at  each  point  of  con- 
nection, and  by  the  15  watertight  bulkheads, 
which  were  riveted  strongly  to  the  bottom  and 
sides  of  the  ship,  and  also  by  11  non-watertight 
bulkheads,  which  formed  the  inner  walls  of  the 
[101] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

coal  bunkers  on  each  side  of  the  main  bulk- 
heads. 

The  bridge,  shelter,  saloon,  and  upper  decks 
were  supported  and  stiffened  by  four  lines  of 
heavy  longitudinal  girder s,  worked  in  between 
the  beams,  which  were  themselves  carried  by 
solid  round  pillars  placed  at  every  third  deck 
beam.  In  the  boiler-rooms,  below  the  middle 
deck,  the  load  of  the  superincumbent  decks  was 
carried  down  to  the  double  bottom  by  means  of 
heavy  round  pillars. 

Such  was  the  construction  of  the  Titanic;  and 
it  will  be  agreed  that,  so  far  as  the  strength  and 
integrity  of  the  hull  were  concerned,  it  was  ad- 
mirably adapted  to  meet  the  heavy  stresses 
which  are  involved  in  driving  so  great  and 
heavy  a  ship  through  the  tempestuous  weather 
of  the  North  Atlantic. 

The  first  sight  of  such  a  gigantic  vessel  as 
the  Titanic  produces  an  impression  of  solidity 
and  invulnerability,  which  is  not  altogether  jus- 
tified by  the  facts.  For,  to  tell  the  truth,  the 
modern  steamship  is  a  curious  compound  of 
strength  and  fragility.  Her  strength,  as  must 
be  evident  from  the  foregoing  description  of 
the  framing  of  the  Titanic,  is  enormous,  and 
[102] 


s 


a 


Si 


« 


Q  H 

II 

EH    & 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

ample  for  safety.  Her  fragility  and  vulnerabil- 
ity lie  in  the  fact  that  her  framework  is  over- 
laid with  a  relatively  thin  skin  of  plating,  an 
inch  or  so  in  thickness,  which,  while  amply 
strong  to  resist  the  inward  pressure  of  the 
water,  the  impact  of  the  seas,  and  the  tensile 
and  compressive  stresses  due  to  the  motion  of 
the  ship  in  a  seaway,  etc.,  is  readily  fractured 
by  the  blow  of  a  collision. 

In  a  previous  chapter  it  was  shown  that  when 
the  Titanic  is  being  driven  at  a  speed  of  21 
knots,  she  represents  an  energy  of  over  1,000,- 
000  foot-tons.  If  this  enormous  energy  is  ar- 
rested, or  sought  to  be  arrested,  by  some  rigid 
obstruction,  whether  another  ship,  a  rock,  or 
an  iceberg,  the  delicate  outside  skin  will  be  torn 
like  a  sheet  of  paper. 

It  was  shown  in  Chapter  IV  that  protection 
against  flooding  of  a  ship  through  damage 
below  the  water-line  is  obtained  by  subdividing 
the  hull  into  separate  watertight  compartments, 
and  that,  roughly  speaking,  the  degree  of  pro- 
tection is  proportionate  to  the  extent  to  which 
this  subdivision  is  carried.  Applying  this  to 
the  Titanic,  we  find  that  she  was  divided  by  15 
transverse  bulkheads  into  16  separate  compart- 
[105] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

ments.  But,  in  this  connection  it  must  be  noted 
that  these  bulkheads  did  not  extend  through  the 
whole  height  of  the  ship  to  the  shelter  deck, 
as  they  did  in  the  case  of  the  Great  Eastern, 
and  therefore  it  cannot  be  said  that  the  whole 
of  the  interior  space  of  the  hull  received  the 
benefit  of  subdivision.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
only  about  two-thirds  of  the  total  cubical  space 
contained  below  the  shelter  deck  was  protected 
by  subdivision.  Water,  finding  its  way  into  the 
ship  above  the  level  of  the  decks  to  which  the 
bulkheads  were  carried,  was  free  to  flow  the 
whole  length  of  her  from  stem  to  stern.  Fur- 
thermore, the  value  of  the  subdivision  below 
the  bulkhead  deck  depends  largely  upon  the  de- 
gree to  which  this  deck  is  made  watertight.  If 
the  deck  is  pierced  by  hatchways,  stairways,  and 
other  openings,  which  are  not  provided  with 
watertight  casings  and  hatch  covers,  the  integ- 
rity of  the  deck  is  destroyed,  and  the  bulkhead 
subdivision  below  loses  its  value. 

It  was  largely  this  most  serious  defect — the 
existence  of  many  unprotected  openings  in  the 
bulkhead  deck  of  the  Titanic — that  caused  her 
to  go  down  so  soon  after  the  collision. 

Eeferring  now  to  the  side  elevation  of 
[106] 


CQ 


Q 
y 


2 


^  w  ^ 

o  K^ 

td  ^ 

OD    * 


K  s  g 

DOBD-g 

o  <  o 
S  K  H 

^    O    CQ 


a 

S 

EH 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

the  Titcmic  on  page  129,  it  will  be  noted  that 
the  only  bulkhead  which  was  carried  up  to 
the  shelter  deck  was  the  first,  or  collision 
bulkhead.  The  second  bulkhead  extended  to 
the  saloon  deck,  and  on  the  after  side 
of  this  and  immediately  against  it  was  a 
spiral  stairway  for  the  accommodation  of  the 
crew,  which  led  from  their  quarters  down 
to  the  floor  of  the  ship.  Here  the  stairway 
terminated  in  a  fireman's  passage,  which  led 
aft  through  the  third  and  fourth  bulkheads,  and 
gave  access  through  a  watertight  door  to  the 
foremost  boiler-room.  The  seven  bulkheads, 
from  No.  3  to  No.  9,  extended  only  to  the  upper 
deck,  which,  at  load  draft,  was  only  about  10 
feet  above  the  water-line.  Bulkhead  No.  10  was 
carried  up  one  deck  higher  to  the  saloon  deck, 
as  were  also  bulkheads  11, 12, 13,  and  14.  Bulk- 
head No.  15  terminated  at  the  upper  deck. 

Now,  it  will  be  asked :  what  was  the  factor  in 
the  calculations  which  determined  the  height  of 
these  bulkheads  ?  The  answer  is  to  be  found  in 
the  Board  of  Trade  stipulations,  to  which  ref- 
erence was  made  in  Chapter  IV,  page  62.  These 
stipulations  establish  an  imaginary  safety  line, 
below  which  a  ship  may  not  sink  without  danger 
[109] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

of  foundering.  The  safety  line  represents  the 
depth  to  which  a  ship  will  sink  when  any  two 
adjoining  compartments  are  opened  to  the  sea 
and  therefore  flooded.  If  the  two  forward  com- 
partments are  flooded,  for  instance,  the  bow 
may  sink  with  safety,  until  the  water  is  only 
three  one-hundredths  of  the  depth  of  the  ship, 
at  the  side,  from  the  bulkhead  deck.  If  two 
central  compartments  are  flooded,  the  ship  is 
supposed  to  settle  with  safety  until  the  bulk- 
head deck  at  that  point  is  only  three  one- 
hundredths  of  the  depth  of  the  side,  at  that 
place,  above  the  water. 

The  raising  of  the  height  of  the  bulkheads,  by 
one  deck,  at  the  engine-room,  is  due  to  the 
operation  of  this  rule ;  for  here  the  two  adjoin- 
ing compartments,  those  containing  the  recip- 
rocating engines  and  the  turbine,  are  the  largest 
in  the  ship,  and  their  flooding  would  sink  the 
ship  proportionately  lower  in  the  water. 

Now  it  takes  but  a  glance  at  the  diagrams  on 
page  66  to  show  that  the  application  of  the 
Board  of  Trade  rule  brought  the  bulkhead  line 
of  the  Titanic  down  to  a  lower  level  than  that 
of  any  of  the  other  notable  ships  shown  in  com- 
parison with  her.  It  was  the  low  bulkheads, 
[110] 


I  g 

I  £ 

^  fe 

I  o 

=v  « 

>>  i5 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

acting  in  connection  with  the  non-watertight 
construction  of  the  bulkhead  deck,  that  was 
largely  answerable  for  the  loss  of  this  other- 
wise very  fine  ship. 

Another  grave  defect  in  the  Titanic  was  the 
great  size  of  the  individual  compartments,  cou- 
pled with  the  fact  that  the  only  protection  against 
their  being  flooded  was  the  one-inch  plating  of 
the  outside  skin.  If  this  plating  were  ruptured 
or  the  rivets  started  along  the  seams,  there  was 
nothing  to  prevent  the  flooding  of  the  whole 
compartment  and  the  entry,  at  least  throughout 
the  middle  portion  of  the  ship,  of  from  4,000  to 
6,000  tons  of  water — this  last  being  the  approx- 
imate capacity  of  the  huge  compartment  which 
contained  thei  two  reciprocating  engines.  Now, 
if  safety  lies  in  minute  subdivision,  it  is  evident 
that  in  this  ship  safety  was  sacrificed  to  some 
other  considerations.  The  motive  for  the  plan 
adopted  was  the  desire  to  place  the  coal-bunkers 
in  the  most  convenient  position  with  regard  to 
the  boilers.  By  reference  to  the  hold  plan  of 
the  Titanic,  page  129,  it  will  be  seen  that  her 
29  boilers  were  arranged  transversely  to  the 
ship.  With  the  exception  of  the  five  in  the 
aftermost  compartment,  they  were  "double- 
[113] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

ended/'  with  the  furnaces  facing  fore  and  aft. 
To  facilitate  shovelling  the  coal  into  the  fur- 
naces, the  coal-bunkers  were  placed  one  on  each 
side  of  each  transverse  watertight  bulkhead. 
The  coal  supply  was  thus  placed  immediately 
back  of  the  firemen,  and  the  work  of  getting  the 
coal  from  the  bunkers  to  the  furnaces  was 
greatly  facilitated.  Now,  while  this  was  an  ad- 
mirable arrangement  for  convenience  of  firing, 
it  was  the  worst  possible  plan  as  far  as  the 
safety  of  the  Titanic  was  concerned;  since  any 
damage  to  the  hull  admitted  water  across  the 
whole  width  of  the  ship.  The  alternative  plan, 
which  should  be  made  compulsory  on  all  large 
ocean-going  passenger  steamers,  is  the  one 
adopted  for  the  Mauretania,  Kaiser  Wilhelm 
II,  Imperator,  and  a  few  other  first-class  ships, 
in  which  the  coal-bunkers  are  placed  at  the  sides 
of  the  ship,  where  they  serve  to  prevent  the 
flooding  of  the  main  boiler-room  compartments. 
It  is  probable  that  any  one  of  the  ships  named 
would  have  survived  even  the  terrific  collision 
which  sank  the  Titanic. 

The  objection  has  been  raised  against  longi- 
tudinal coal-bunkers,  that  they  are  not  so  con- 
veniently placed  for  the  firemen.    A  large  force 
[114] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

of  "  coal  passers  "  has  to  be  employed  in  wheel- 
ing the  coal  from  the  bunkers  to  the  front  of 
the  furnaces.  This,  of  course,  entails  an  in- 
creased expense  of  operation. 

The  use  of  transverse  coal-bunkers  must  be 
regarded  as  one  among  many  instances,  in 
which  the  safety  of  passenger  ships  is  sacrificed 
to  considerations  of  economy  and  convenience 
of  operation. 


[115] 


CHAPTER  VII 

HOW  THE  GREAT  SHIP  WENT  DOWN 

THE  Titanic,  fresh  from  the  builder's  hands, 
sailed  from  Southampton,  Wednesday,  April 
10,  1912.  She  reached  Cherbourg  on  the  after- 
noon of  the  same  day,  and  Queenstown,  Ireland, 
at  noon  on  Thursday.  After  embarking  the 
mails  and  passengers,  she  left  for  New  York, 
having  on  board  1,324  passengers  and  a  ship's 
complement  of  officers  and  crew  of  899  persons. 
The  passenger  list  showed  that  there  were  329 
first-class,  285  second-class,  and  710  third-class 
passengers. 

The  weather  throughout  the  voyage  was  clear 
and  the  sea  calm.  At  noon  on  the  third  day  out, 
a  wireless  message  was  received  from  the  Baltic, 
dated  Sunday,  April  14,  which  read:  "  Greek 
steamship  AtMnai  reports  passing  icebergs  and 
large  quantity  of  field  ice  to-day  in  latitude 
41.51  north,  longitude  49.52  west."  At  about  7 
P.M.  a  second  warning  was  received  by  the  Ti- 
tanic, this  time  from  the  Calif ornian,  which  re- 
ported ice  about  19  miles  to  the  northward  of 
[116] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

the  track  on  which  the  Titanic  was  steaming. 
The  message  read:  "  Latitude  42.3  north,  longi- 
tude 49.9  west.  Three  large  bergs  five  miles  to 
southward  of  us."  Later  there  was  a  third 
message:  "Amerika  passed  two  large  icebergs 
in  41.27  north,  50.8  west  on  the  14th  of  April." 
A  fourth  message,  sent  by  the  Californian, 
reached  the  ship  about  an  hour  before  the  acci- 
dent occurred,  or  about  10.40  o'clock,  which 
said : '  '  We  are  stopped  and  surrounded  by  ice. ' ' 

These  wireless  warnings  prove  that  the  cap- 
tain of  the  Titanic  knew  there  was  ice  to  the 
north,  to  the  south,  and  immediately  ahead  of 
the  southerly  steamship  route  on  which  he  was 
steaming.  The  evidence  shows  that  Captain 
Smith  remarked  to  the  officer  doing  duty  on  the 
bridge,  "If  it  is  in  a  slight  degree  hazy  we 
shall  have  to  go  very  slowly."  The  officer  of 
the  watch  instructed  the  lookouts  to  "  keep  a 
sharp  lookout  for  ice."  The  night  was  starlit 
and  the  weather  exceptionally  clear. 

After  leaving  Queenstown  the  speed  of  the 
Titanic  had  been  gradually  increased.  The  run 
for  the  first  day  was  464  miles,  for  the  second 
519  miles,  and  for  the  third  day,  ending  at  noon 
Sunday,  it  was  546  miles.  Testimony  given  be- 
[119] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

fore  the  Court  of  Inquiry  under  Lord  Mersey, 
showed  that  the  Chief  Engineer  had  arranged 
to  drive  the  vessel  at  full  speed  for  a  few  hours 
either  on  Monday  or  Tuesday.  Twenty-one  of 
the  twenty-nine  boilers  were  in  use  until  Sunday 
night,  when  three  more  were  "  lighted. "  It  is 
evident  that  the  engines  were  being  gradually 
speeded  up  to  their  maximum  revolutions.  Both 
on  the  bridge  and  in  the  engine-room  there  was 
a  manifest  reluctance  to  allow  anything  to  in- 
terfere with  the  full-speed  run  of  the  following 
day.  This  is  the  only  possible  explanation  of 
the  amazing  fact  that,  in  spite  of  successive 
warnings  that  a  large  icefield  with  bergs  of 
great  size  was  drifting  right  across  the  course 
of  the  Titanic,  fire  was  put  under  additional 
boilers  and  the  speed  of  the  ship  increased. 

It  was  shown  in  a  previous  chapter  on  "  The 
Dangers  of  the  Sea,"  that  one  of  the  greatest 
risks  of  high-speed  travel  across  the  North 
Atlantic  is  a  certain  spirit  of  sangfroid  which 
is  liable  to  be  begotten  of  constant  familiarity 
with  danger  and  a  continual  run  of  good  luck. 
If  familiarity  ever  bred  contempt,  surely  it 
must  have  done  so  among  the  captain  and  offi- 
cers of  the  Titanic  on  that  fatal  night.  One 
[120] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

looks  in  vain  for  evidence  that  the  situation  was 
regarded  as  highly  critical  and  calling  for  the 
most  careful  navigation; — calling,  surely,  for 
something  more  than  the  mere  keeping  of  a 
good  lookout — an  imperative  duty  at  all  times, 
whether  by  day  or  night.  Yet  the  fate  of  that 
ship  and  her  precious  freight  of  human  life 
hung  upon  the  mere  chance  of  sighting  an  ob- 
struction in  time  to  avoid  collision  by  a  quick 
turn  of  the  helm.  The  question  of  hitting  or 
missing  was  one  not  of  minutes  but  of  seconds. 
A  ship  like  this,  nigh  upon  a  thousand  feet  in 
length,  makes  a  wide  sweep  in  turning,  even 
with  the  helm  hard  over.  At  21  knots  the  Ti- 
tanic covered  over  a  third  of  a  mile  in  a  min- 
ute's time.  Even  with  her  engines  reversed  she 
would  have  surged  ahead  for  a  half  mile  or  so 
before  coming  to  a  stop.  Should  she  strike  an 
obstruction  at  full  speed,  the  blow  delivered 
would  equal  that  of  the  combined  broadsides  of 
two  modern  dreadnoughts. 

And  so  the  majestic  ship  swept  swiftly  to  her 
doom — a  concrete  expression  of  man 's  age-long 
struggle  to  subdue  the  resistless  forces  of  na- 
ture— a  pathetic  picture  both  of  his  power  and 
his  impotence.  As  she  sped  on  under  the  dim 
[123] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

light  of  the  stars,  not  a  soul  on  board  dreamed 
to  what  a  death-grapple  she  was  coming  with 
the  relentless  powers  of  the  sea.  Latest 
product  of  the  shipbuilder's  art,  she  was  about 
to  brush  elbows  with  another  giant  of  the  sea, 
launched  by  nature  from  the  frozen  shipyards 
of  the  north,  and  she  was  to  reel  from  the  con- 
tact stricken  to  the  death  like  the  fragile  thing 
she  was! 

At  11.46  P.M.  the  sharp  warning  came  from 
the  lookout :  ' '  Iceberg  right  ahead. ' '  Instantly 
the  engines  were  reversed  and  the  helm  was  put 
hard  a-starboard.  A  few  seconds  earlier  and  she 
might  have  cleared.  As  it  was,  she  struck  an 
underwater,  projecting  shelf  of  the  iceberg,  and 
ripped  open  200  feet  of  her  plating,  from  for- 
ward of  the  collision  bulkhead  to  a  few  feet 
aft  of  the  bulkhead  separating  boiler-rooms 
numbers  5  and  6.  It  was  a  death  wound! 
How  deeply  the  iceberg  cut  into  the  fabric  of 
the  ship  will  never  be  known.  Probably  the  first 
incision  was  deep  and  wide,  the  damage,  as  the 
shelf  of  ice  was  ground  down  by  contact  with 
the  framing  and  plating  of  the  ship  becoming 
less  in  area  as  successive  compartments  were 
ruptured. 

[124] 


Courtesy  of  Scientific  American 

THE  TITANIC  STRUCK  A  GLANCING  BLOW  AGAINST  AN 
UNDER-WATER  SHELF  OF  THE  ICEBERG,  OPENING  UP 
FIVE  COMPARTMENTS.  HAD  SHE  BEEN  PROVIDED  WITH 
A  WATERTIGHT  DECK  AT  OR  NEAR  THE  WATER  LINE, 
THE  WATER  WHICH  ENTERED  THE  SHIP  WOULD  HAVE 
BEEN  CONFINED  BELOW  THAT  DECK,  AND  THE  BUOY- 
ANCY OF  THAT  PORTION  OF  THE  SHIP  ABOVE  WATER 
WOULD  HAVE  KEPT  HER  AFLOAT.  As  IT  WAS,  THE 
WATER  ROSE  THROUGH  OPENINGS  IN  THE  DECKS  AND 
DESTROYED  THE  RESERVE  BUOYANCY 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  depth  of  the  in- 
jury, it  is  certain  from  the  evidence  that  the  six 
forward  compartments  were  opened  to  the  sea. 
Immediately  after  the  collision  the  whistling  of 
air,  as  it  issued  from  the  escape  pipe  of  the  fore- 
peak  tank,  indicated  that  the  tank  was  being 
filled  by  an  inrush  of  water.  The  three  follow- 
ing compartments,  in  which  were  located  the 
baggage-room  and  mail-room,  were  quickly 
flooded.  Leading  fireman  Barrett,  who  was  in 
the  forward  boiler-room,  felt  the  shock  of  the 
collision.  Immediately  afterwards  he  saw  the 
outer  skin  of  the  ship  ripped  open  about  two 
feet  above  the  floor,  and  a  large  volume  of 
water  came  rushing  into  the  ship.  He  was 
quick  enough  to  jump  through  the  open  door 
in  the  bulkhead  separating  boiler-rooms  6  and 
5,  before  it  was  released  from  the  bridge. 
The  damage  just  abaft  of  this  bulkhead  ad- 
mitted water  to  the  forward  coal-bunker  of 
room  No.  5,  which  held  for  a  while,  but  being 
of  non-watertight  and  rather  light  construction, 
must  have  soon  given  way ;  for  the  same  witness 
testified  to  a  sudden  rush  of  water  coming 
across  the  floor-plates  between  the  boilers. 

In  spite  of  the  frightful  extent  of  the  dam- 
[127] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

age,  the  Titanic,  because  of  the  great  height  to 
which  her  plated  structure  extended  above  the 
water-line,  and  the  consequent  large  amount  of 
reserve  buoyancy  which  she  possessed,  would 
probably  have  remained  afloat  a  great  many 
hours  longer  than  she  did,  had  the  deck  to  which 
her  bulkheads  extended  been  thoroughly  water- 
tight. As  it  was,  this  deck  (upper  deck  E)  was 
pierced  by  hatchways  and  stairways  which,  as 
the  bow  settled  deeper  and  deeper,  permitted 
the  water  to  flow  up  over  the  deck  and  pass  aft 
over  the  tops  of  the  after  bulkheads  and  so- 
called  watertight  compartments.  See  page  129. 
Now,  it  so  happened  that  for  the  full  length 
of  the  boiler-rooms  there  had  been  constructed 
on  upper  deck  E  what  was  known  as  the  ' l  work- 
ing-crew alleyway."  On  the  inboard  side  of 
this  passage  six  non-watertight  doors  opened 
on  to  as  many  iron  ladders  leading  down  to  the 
boiler-rooms.  Not  only  were  these  doors  non- 
watertight,  but  they  consisted  of  a  mere  open 
frame  or  grating,  this  construction  having  been 
adopted,  doubtless,  for  purposes  of  ventilation. 
Unfortunately,  although  there  was  a  watertight 
door  at  the  after  end  of  this  alleyway,  there  was 
none  at  its  forward  end.  The  water  which 
[128] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

boiled  up  from  the  forward  flooded  compart- 
ments, as  it  flowed  aft,  poured  successively 
through  the  open  grating  of  the  alleyway  doors, 
flooding  the  compartments  below,  one  after  the 
other. 

It  does  not  take  a  technically  instructed  mind 
to  understand  from  this  that  the  safety  ele- 
ments of  the  construction  of  the  Titanic  were  as 
faulty  above  the  water-line  as  they  were  below 
it.  The  absence  of  an  inner  skin  and  the  pres- 
ence of  these  many  openings  in  her  bulkhead 
deck  combined  to  sink  this  huge  ship,  whose  re- 
serve buoyancy  must  have  amounted  to  at  least 
80,000  tons,  in  the  brief  space  of  two  and  one- 
half  hours. 

Not  until  the  designer,  Mr.  Andrews,  had 
made  known  to  the  captain  that  the  ship  was 
doomed  was  the  order  given  to  man  the  life- 
boats. The  lifeboats,  forsooth!  Twenty  of 
them  in  all  with  a  maximum  accommodation,  if 
every  one  were  loaded  to  its  full  capacity,  of 
something  over  one  thousand,  for  a  ship's  com- 
pany that  numbered  2,223  in  all.  Just  here,  in 
this  very  fatal  discrepancy,  is  to  be  found  proof 
of  the  widespread  belief  that  a  great  ship  like 
the  Titanic  was  practically  unsinkable,  and 
[131] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

therefore  in  times  of  dire  stress  such  as  this, 
was  well  able  to  act  as  its  own  lifeboat  until 
rescuing  ships,  summoned  by  wireless,  should 
come  to  her  aid. 

The  manner  of  the  stricken  ship's  final 
plunge  to  the  bottom  may  be  readily  gathered 
from  the  stories  told  by  the  survivors.  As  com- 
partment after  compartment  was  filled  by  over- 
flow from  the  decks  above,  her  bow  sank  deeper 
and  her  stern  lifted  high  in  the  air,  until  the 
ship,  buoyed  up  by  her  after  compartments, 
swung  almost  vertically  in  the  water  like  a  gi- 
gantic spar  buoy.  In  this  unaccustomed  posi- 
tion, her  engines  and  boilers,  standing  out  from 
the  floor  like  brackets  from  a  wall,  tore  loose 
from  their  foundations  and  crashed  down  into 
the  forward  part  of  the  ship.  Probably  it  was 
the  muffled  roar  of  this  falling  machinery  that 
caused  some  of  the  survivors  to  imagine  that 
they  witnessed  the  bursting  of  boilers  and  the 
breaking  apart  of  the  hull.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  shell  of  the  Titcmic  went  to  the  bottom  prac- 
tically intact.  One  by  one  the  after  compart- 
ments gave  way,  until  the  ship,  weighted  at  her 
forward  end  with  the  wreckage  of  engine-  and 
boiler-rooms,  sank,  straight  as  an  arrow,  to 
[132] 


o 

I  § 

J5    S 

.    EH 


5    S 


p    w 
?     M 

25    EH 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

bury  herself  deep  in  the  ooze  of  the  Atlantic 
bottom  two  miles  below.  There,  for  aught  we 
know,  with  several  hundred  feet  of  her  hull 
rising  sheer  above  the  ocean  floor,  she  may  now 
be  standing,  a  sublime  memorial  shaft  to  the 
fifteen  hundred  souls  who  perished  in  this  un- 
speakable tragedy! 


[135] 


CHAPTER  VIII 

WARSHIP    PROTECTION    AGAINST    RAM,    MINE,    AND 
TORPEDO 

THE  most  perfect  example  of  protection  by  sub- 
division of  the  hull  into  separate  compartments 
is  to  be  found  in  the  warship.  It  is  safe  to  say 
that  there  is  no  feature  of  the  design  to  which 
more  careful  thought  is  given  by  the  naval  con- 
structor than  this.  Loss  of  stability  in  a  naval 
engagement  means  the  end  of  the  fight  so  far 
as  the  damaged  ship  is  concerned.  Nay,  even  a 
partial  loss  of  stability,  causing  the  ship  to  take 
a  heavy  list,  may  throw  a  ship's  batteries  en- 
tirely out  of  action,  the  guns  on  the  high  side 
being  so  greatly  elevated  and  those  on  the  low 
side  so  much  depressed,  that  neither  can  be 
effectively  trained  upon  the  enemy.  Further- 
more, deep  submergence  following  the  entrance 
of  large  quantities  of  water,  will  cut  down  the 
ship's  speed;  with  the  result,  either  that  she 
must  fall  out  of  line  or  the  speed  of  the  whole 
fleet  must  be  reduced. 

In  the  battle  of  the  Sea  of  Japan  it  was  the 
[136] 


M 


8 

,u     m 


"2  « 
I   B 


i  § 

»  & 


P-l 


H 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

bursting  of  heavy  12-inch  shells  at  or  just 
below  the  water-line  of  the  leading  ship  of  the 
Kussian  line  that  sent  her  to  the  bottom  before 
she  had  received  any  serious  damage  to  her 
main  batteries.  Later  in  the  fight,  several  other 
Kussian  battleships  capsized  from  the  same 
cause,  assisted  by  the  weight  of  extra  supplies 
of  coal  which  the  Eussians  had  stowed  on  the 
upper  decks  above  the  water-line. 

In  the  matter  of  subdivision  as  a  protection 
against  sinking,  there  is  this  important  differ- 
ence between  the  merchant  ship  and  the  war- 
ship, that,  whereas  the  merchant  ship  is  sunk 
through  accident,  the  warship  is  sunk  by  delib- 
erate intention.  The  amount  of  damage  done  to 
the  former  ship  will  be  great  or  small  accord- 
ing to  the  accidental  conditions  of  the  time; 
but  the  damage  to  the  warship  is  the  result  of  a 
deliberately  planned  attack,  and  is  wrought  by 
powerful  agencies,  designed  to  execute  the 
maximum  amount  of  destruction  with  every 
blow  delivered. 

A  large  proportion  of  the  time  and  money 

which  have  been  expended  in  the  development 

of  the  instruments  of  naval  warfare  has  been 

devoted    to    the    design    and    construction    of 

[139] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

weapons,  whose  object  is  to  sink  the  enemy  by 
destroying  the  integrity  of  the  submerged  por- 
tion of  the  hull.  Chief  among  these  weapons 
are  the  ram,  the  torpedo,  and  the  mine.  There 
can  be  no  question  that  the  damage  inflicted  by 
the  ram  of  a  warship  would  be  far  greater, 
other  things  being  equal,  than  that  inflicted  by 
the  bow  of  a  merchant  ship.  The  ram  is  built 
especially  for  its  purpose.  Not  only  is  it  an 
exceedingly  stiff  and  strong  construction;  but 
it  is  so  framed  and  tied  into  the  bow  of  the 
warship,  that  it  will  tear  open  a  long,  gaping 
wound  in  the  hull  of  the  enemy  before  it  is 
broken  off  or  twisted  out  of  place.  The  bow 
of  the  merchant  vessel  is  a  relatively  frail 
structure,  and  many  a  ship  that  has  been 
rammed  has  owed  its  salvation  to  the  fact  that 
immediately  upon  contact,  the  bow  of  the  ram- 
ming ship  is  crumpled  up  or  bent  aside,  and  the 
depth  of  penetration  into  the  vessel  that  is 
rammed  is  greatly  limited.  Furthermore,  be- 
cause of  its  underwater  projection,  the  ram  de- 
velops the  whole  force  of  the  blow  beneath  the 
water-line,  where  the  injury  will  be  most  fatal. 
Even  more  potent  than  the  ram  is  the  tor- 
pedo, which  of  late  years  has  been  developed 
[140] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

to  a  point  of  efficiency  in  range,  speed,  and  de- 
structive power  which  has  rendered  it  perhaps 
the  most  dreaded  of  all  the  weapons  of  naval 
warfare.  The  modern  torpedo  carries  in  its 
head  a  charge  of  over  200  pounds  of  guncotton 
and  has  a  range  of  10,000  yards.  Ordinarily, 
it  is  set  to  run  at  a  depth  of  10  to  12  feet  below 
the  water;  and  should  it  get  home  against 
the  side  of  a  ship,  it  will  strike  her  well  below 
the  armour  belt  and  upon  the  relatively  thin 
plating  of  the  hull. 

Most  destructive  of  all  weapons  for  under- 
water attack,  however,  is  the  mine,  which  sent 
to  the  bottom  many  a  good  ship  during  the 
Kusso-Japanese  war.  The  more  deadly  effects 
of  the  mine,  as  compared  with  the  torpedo,  are 
due  to  its  heavy  charge  of  high  explosive,  which 
sometimes  reaches  as  high  as  500  pounds. 
Contact,  even  with  a  mine,  is  not  necessarily 
fatal ;  indeed  the  notable  instances  in  which  war- 
ships have  gone  to  the  bottom  immediately  upon 
striking  a  mine  have  been  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  mine  exploded  immediately  under,  or 
in  close  proximity  to  the  ship's  magazines, 
which,  being  set  off  by  the  shock,  tore  the  ship 
apart  and  caused  her  to  go  down  within  a  few 
[141] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

minutes '  time.  This  was  what  happened  to  our 
own  battleship  Maine  in  Havana  harbour,  and 
to  the  Eussian  battleship  Petropavlovsk  and  the 
Japanese  battleship  Hatsuse  at  Port  Arthur. 

Enough  has  been  said  to  prove  that  when  the 
naval  architect  undertakes  to  build  a  hull  that 
will  be  proof  against  the  blow,  not  merely  of 
one  but  of  several  of  these  terrific  weapons,  he 
has  set  himself  a  task  that  may  well  try  his  in- 
genuity to  the  utmost.  Protection  by  heavy 
armour  is  out  of  the  question.  The  weight 
would  be  prohibitive  and,  indeed,  all  the  side 
armour  that  he  can  put  upon  the  ship  is  needed 
at  the  water-line  and  above  it,  as  a  protection 
against  the  armour-piercing,  high-explosive 
shells  of  the  enemy. 

Heavy  armour,  then,  being  out  of  the  ques- 
tion, he  has  to  fall  back  upon  the  one  method  of 
defense  left  at  his  disposal, — minute  subdivision 
into  watertight  compartments.  Associated 
with  this  is  the  placing  at  the  water-line  of  a 
heavy  steel  deck,  known  as  the  protective  deck, 
which  extends  over  the  whole  length  and 
breadth  of  the  hull  and  is  made  thoroughly 
watertight. 

The  double-skin  construction,  which  was  used 
[142] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

to  such  good  effect  in  the  Great  Eastern,  is 
found  in  every  large  warship;  and  in  a  battle- 
ship of  the  first  class,  the  two  skins  are  spaced 
widely  apart,  a  spacing  of  three  or  more  feet 
being  not  unusual.  The  double-hull  construc- 
tion, with  its  exceedingly  strong  framing,  is 
carried  up  to  about  water-line  level,  where  it 
is  covered  in  by  the  protective  deck  above  re- 
ferred to.  Below  the  protective  deck  the  in- 
terior is  subdivided  into  a  number  of  small 
compartments  by  transverse  bulkheads,  which 
extend  from  the  inner  bottom  to  the  protective 
deck,  and  from  side  to  side  of  the  ship.  The 
transverse  compartments  thus  formed  are  made 
as  small  as  possible,  the  largest  being  those 
which  contain  the  boilers  and  engines.  For- 
ward and  aft  of  the  boiler-  and  engine-room 
compartments  the  transverse  bulkheads  are 
spaced  much  closer  together,  the  uses  to  which 
these  portions  of  the  ship  are  put  admitting  of 
more  minute  subdivision. 

By  the  courtesy  of  Naval  Constructor  B.  H. 
M.  Eobinson,  U.  S.  N.,  we  reproduce  on  page  143 
from  his  work  "  Naval  Construction  "  a  hold 
plan  and  an  inboard  profile  of  a  typical  battle- 
ship,— the  Connecticut, — which  give  a  clear  irn- 
[145] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

pression  of  the  completeness  with  which  the 
interior  is  bulkheaded.  Although  the  ship 
shown  is  less  than  one-half  as  long  as  the  Ti- 
tanic, she  has  27  transverse  bulkheads  as 
against  the  15  on  the  larger  ship;  and  all  but 
nine  of  these  are  carried  clear  across  the  ship 
from  side  to  side. 

Equally  complete  is  the  system  of  longi- 
tudinal bulkheads.  Most  important  of  these  is 
a  central  bulkhead,  placed  on  the  line  of  the 
keel,  and  running  from  stem  to  stern.  On  each 
side  of  this  and  extending  the  full  length  of  the 
machinery  spaces,  is  another  bulkhead,  which 
forms  the  inner  wall  of  the  coal-bunkers.  For- 
ward and  aft  of  the  machinery  spaces  are  other 
longitudinal  bulkheads,  which  form  the  fore- 
and-aft  walls  of  the  handling-rooms  and  am- 
munition-rooms. 

To  appreciate  the  completeness  of  the  sub- 
division, we  must  look  at  the  inboard  profile 
and  note'  that  the  spaces  forward  and  aft  of 
the  engine-  and  boiler-rooms  are  further  sub- 
divided, in  horizontal  planes,  by  several  steel, 
watertight  decks  or  "  flats,"  as  they  are  called. 
Including  the  compartments  enclosed  between 
the  walls  of  the  double  hull,  the  whole  interior 
[146] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

of  the  battleship  Connecticut,  below  the  protec- 
tive deck,  is  divided  up  into  as  many  as  500 
separate  and  perfectly  watertight  compart- 
ments. 

Moreover,  in  some  of  the  latest  battleships 
of  the  dreadnought  type  the  practice  has  been 
followed  of  permitting  no  doors  of  any  descrip- 
tion to  be  cut  through  the  bulkheads  below  the 
water-line.  Access  from  one  compartment  to 
another  can  be  had  only  by  way  of  the  decks 
above.  Furthermore,  all  the  openings  through 
the  protective  deck  are  provided  with  strong 
watertight  hatches  or,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
openings  for  the  smoke  stacks,  ammunition- 
hoists,  and  ventilators,  they  are  enclosed  by 
watertight  steel  casings,  extending  to  the  upper 
decks,  far  above  the  water-line. 

In  the  later  warships,  further  protection  is 
afforded  by  constructing  the  first  deck  above 
the  protective  deck  of  heavy  steel  plating  and 
making  it  thoroughly  watertight,  every  open- 
ing in  this  deck,  such  as  those  for  stairways, 
being  provided  with  watertight  steel  hatches. 
This  deck,  also,  is  thoroughly  subdivided  by 
bulkheads  and  provided  with  watertight  doors. 

It  sounds  like  a  truism  to  say  that  a  water- 
[147] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

tight  bulkhead  must  be  watertight;  yet  it  is  a 
fact  that  only  in  the  navy  are  the  proper  pre- 
cautions taken  to  test  the  bulkheads  and  make 
sure  that  they  will  not  leak  when  they  are  sub- 
jected to  heavy  water  pressure.  Before  a  ship 
is  accepted  by  the  government,  every  compart- 
ment is  tested  by  filling  it  with  water  and  plac- 
ing it  under  the  maximum  pressure  to  which  it 
would  be  subjected  if  the  ship  were  deeply 
submerged.  If  any  leaks  are  observed  in  the 
bulkheads,  decks,  etc.,  they  are  carefully  caulked 
up,  and  the  test  is  repeated  until  the  bulkhead 
is  absolutely  tight. 

Now,  here  is  a  practice  which  should  be  made 
compulsory  in  the  construction  of  all  passen- 
ger-carrying steamships.  Only  by  filling  a  com- 
partment with  water  is  it  possible  to  determine 
whether  that  compartment  is  watertight.  To 
send  an  important  ship  to  sea  without  testing 
her  bulkheads  is  an  invitation  to  disaster.  The 
amount  of  water  that  may  find  its  way  through 
a  newly-constructed  bulkhead  is  something  as- 
tonishing; for  although  the  leakage  along  any 
particular  joint  or  seam  of  the  plating  may  be 
relatively  small,  the  aggregate  amount  will  be 
surprisingly  large. 

[148] 


Between  the  boiler  rooms  and  the  sea  are  four,  separate, 
watertight  walls  of  steel.  The  whole  is  covered  in  by  a  3-inch 
watertight  steel  deck. 

MIDSHIP  SECTION  OF  A  BATTLESHIP 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

Let  us  now  pass  on  to  consider  the  actual 
efficiency  of  the  watertight  subdivision  as  thus 
so  carefully  worked  out  in  the  modern  warship. 
Thanks  to  the  Bus  so- Japanese  war,  which  af- 
forded a  supreme  test  of  the  underwater  pro- 
tection of  ships,  the  value  of  the  present 
methods  of  construction  has  been  proved  to  an 
absolute  demonstration. 

The  following  facts,  which,  were  given  to  the 
writer  by  Captain  (now  Admiral)  von  Essen 
of  the  Eussian  Navy,  at  the  close  of  the  Eus so- 
Japanese  war,  and  were  published  in  the  ' l  Sci- 
entific American,"  serve  to  show  what  great 
powers  of  resistance  are  conferred  on  a  war- 
ship by  the  system  of  subdivision  above  de- 
scribed. The  story  of  the  repeated  damage 
inflicted  and  the  method  of  extemporised  re- 
pairs adopted,  is  so  full  of  interest  that  it  is 
given  in  full: 

*  '  Immediately  after  the  disaster  of  the  night 
of  February  8th,"  when  the  Japanese,  in  a 
surprise  attack,  torpedoed  several  of  the  Eus- 
sian ships,  "  the  cruiser  Pallada  was  floated  into 
drydock,  and  the  battleships  Czarevitch  and 
Retvizan  were  taken  into  the  inner  harbour, 
[151] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

and  repairs  executed  by  means  of  caissons  of 
timber,  built  around  the  gaping  holes  which  had 
been  blown  into  their  hulls  by  torpedoes.  The 
repairs  to  the  Pallada  were  completed  early  in 
April,  and  about  the  20th  of  June  the  Czare- 
vitch and  Retvizan  were  also  in  condition  to 
take  the  sea.  On  the  13th  of  April,  during  the 
sortie  in  which  the  Petropavlovsk  was  sunk 
with  Admiral  Makaroff  on  board,  the  battleship 
Pobieda,  in  returning  to  the  harbour,  struck  a 
contact  mine,  and  was  heavily  damaged.  Simi- 
lar repairs  were  executed,  and  this  ship  was 
able  to  take  her  station  in  the  line  in  the  great 
sortie  of  August  10. 

"  On  June  23  Captain  von  Essen's  ship,  the 
Sevastopol,  was  sent  outside  the  harbour  to 
drive  off  several  Japanese  cruisers  that  were 
shelling  the  line  of  fortifications  to  the  east  of 
Port  Arthur.  This  she  accomplished;  but  in 
returning  she  struck  a  Japanese  mine,  which 
blew  in  about  400  square  feet  on  the  starboard 
side,  abaft  the  foremast,  at  a  depth  of  about  7 
feet  below  the  water-line.  The  rent  was  from 
7  to  10  feet  in  depth  and  35  to  40  feet  in  length. 
The  frames,  ten  in  all,  were  bent  inward,  or 
torn  entirely  apart,  and  the  plating  was  blown 
[152] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

bodily  into  the  ship.  She  was  taken  into  the 
inner  harbour,  where  the  injured  portion  of  the 
hull  was  enclosed  by  a  timber  caisson  in  the 
manner  shown  in  the  engravings  on  page  155. 
The  caisson — a  rectangular,  three-sided  cham- 
ber— was  built  of  9-in.  by  9-in.  timbers,  tongued 
and  grooved  and  carefully  dovetailed.  The  floor 
of  the  caisson  abutted  against  the  bilge  keel. 
The  outer  wall,  which  was  at  a  distance  of  about 
10  feet  from  the  hull,  had  a  total  depth  of  about 
34  feet,  the  total  length  of  the  caisson  being 
about  75  feet.  Knee-bracing  of  heavy  timbers 
was  worked  in  between  the  floor  and  the  walls, 
and  the  construction  was  stiffened  by  heavy,  di- 
agonal bolts,  which  passed  through  from  floor  to 
outside  wall,  as  shown  in  the  drawing.  Water- 
tight contact  between  the  edge  of  the  caisson 
and  the  hull  of  the  ship  was  secured  by  the 
use  of  hemp  packing  covered  with  canvas.  The 
whole  of  the  outside  of  the  caisson  was  covered 
with  canvas,  and  upon  this  was  laid  a  heavy 
coating  of  hot  tar.  The  caisson  was  then 
floated  into  position  and  drawn  up  snugly 
against  the  side  of  the  ship  by  means  of  cables, 
some  of  which  passed  underneath  the  ship  and 
were  drawn  tight  on  the  port  side,  while  others 
[153] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

were  attached  to  the  top  edge  of  the  caisson  and 
led  across  to  steam  winches  on  deck.  After  the 
water  had  been  pumped  out,  the  hydraulic  pres- 
sure served  to  hold  the  caisson  snugly  against 
the  hull.  The  damaged  plating  and  broken 
frames  were  then  cut  away;  new  frames  were 
built  into  the  ship,  the  plating  was  riveted  on, 
and  the  vessel  was  restored  to  first-class  condi- 
tion without  entering  drydock. 

"  On  September  the  20th,  during  operations 
outside  the  harbour,  the  Sevastopol  again  struck 
a  mine,  and  by  a  curious  coincidence  she  was 
damaged  in  the  exact  spot  where  she  received 
her  first  injury.  This  time,  however,  the  mine 
was  much  larger  and  it  was  estimated  to  have 
contained  fully  400  pounds  of  high  explosive. 
The  shock  was  terrific  and  the  area  of  the  in- 
jury was  fully  700  square  feet.  The  ship  im- 
mediately took  a  heavy  list  to  starboard,  which 
was  corrected  by  admitting  water  to  compart- 
ments on  the  port  side.  She  was  brought  back 
into  the  harbour,  and  a  repair  caisson  was  again 
applied.  The  repairing  of  this  damage  was,  of 
course,  a  longer  job.  Moreover,  it  was  done  at 
a  time  when  the  Japanese  11-inch  mortar  bat- 
teries were  getting  the  range  and  making  fre- 
[154] 


1 
I 


O 
tft 

OS 

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.38 


:*  § 

If  I 

X!  Is  PQ 

o>  D 

cu  +j  QQ 

S    3 

sj  5 

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s«  ^ 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

quent  hits.  One  11-inch  shell  struck  the  bridge 
just  above  the  caisson  and,  when  it  burst,  a 
shower  of  heavy  fragments  tore  through  the 
outer  wall  of  the  caisson,  letting  in  the  water 
and  necessitating  extensive  repairs.  Neverthe- 
less, the  Sevastopol  was  again  put  in  sea- 
worthy condition,  this  time  the  repairs  taking 
about  two  and  one-half  months'  time.  During 
the  eleven  months  of  the  siege  of  Port  Arthur 
five  big  repair  jobs  of  the  magnitude  above  de- 
scribed were  completed,  and  over  one  dozen 
perforations  of  the  hull  below  water,  due  to 
heavy  projectiles,  were  repaired,  either  in  dry- 
dock  or  by  the  caisson  method. " 

Now,  when  it  is  remembered  that  the  Sevas- 
topol was  not  a  new  ship,  and  that  her  internal 
subdivision  was  not  nearly  so  complete  as  that 
which  is  found  in  the  most  modern  battle- 
ships, it  will  be  realised  how  effective  are  prop- 
erly built  bulkheads  and  thoroughly  watertight 
compartments  against  even  the  most  ex- 
tensive injury  to  the  outer  shell  of  a  ship.  It 
is  claimed  for  the  latest  battleships  of  the 
dreadnought  type,  built  for  the  United  States 
Navy,  that  they  would  remain  afloat,  even 
[157] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

after   having   been   struck   by   three   or   four 
torpedoes. 

Now,  it  is  inexpedient  to  build  merchant 
ships  with  such  an  elaborate  system  of  water- 
tight compartments  as  that  described  in  this 
chapter.  Considerations  of  cost  and  con- 
venience of  operation  render  this  impossible; 
but  it  is  entirely  possible  to  incorporate  in  the 
large  passenger  steamers  a  sufficient  degree  of 
protection  of  this  character  to  render  them 
proof  against  sinking  by  the  accidents  of  col- 
lision, whether  with  another  ship,  a  derelict, 
or  even  with  the  dreaded  iceberg.  The  man- 
ner in  which  the  problem  has  been  worked  out 
in  several  of  the  most  noted  passenger  steamers 
of  the  present  day  is  reserved  for  discussion 
in  the  following  chapter. 


.[158] 


This  ship  has  twenty-four  compartments  below  the  water  line. 
Fire-bulkheads    protect    passenger    decks. 

THE  65,000-ToN,  23-KNOT  IMPERATOR— LARGEST  SHIP 
AFLOAT 


CHAPTER  IX 

WARSHIP   PROTECTION   AS   APPLIED   TO   SOME   OCEAN 
LINERS 

IT  was  shown  in  the  previous  chapter  that  the 
most  completely  protected  vessel,  so  far  as  its 
flotation  is  concerned,  is  the  warship,  and  plans 
were  given  of  a  battleship  whose  hull  below  the 
water-line  was  subdivided  into  no  less  than  five 
hundred  separate  watertight  compartments. 
Facts  were  cited  from  the  naval  operations  in 
and  around  the  harbour  of  Port  Arthur,  which 
prove  that  the  battleship  is  capable  of  sustain- 
ing an  enormous  amount  of  injury  below  the 
water-line  without  going  to  the  bottom. 

Now,  if  it  were  possible  to  apply  subdivision 
to  the  large  ocean  liners  on  the  liberal  scale  on 
which  it  is  worked  out  in  ships  of  war,  it  would 
not  be  going  too  far  to  say  that  they  would  be 
absolutely  unsinkable  by  any  of  the  usual  acci- 
dents of  collision.  The  60,000-ton  Titanic,  were 
she  subdivided  as  minutely  as  the  warship 
shown  on  page  143,  would  contain  at  least  1,500 
separate  compartments-  below  her  lower  deck, 
[161] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

and  under  these  conditions  even  the  long  rent 
which  was  torn  in  her  plating  would  have  done 
no  more  than  set  her  down  slightly  by  the  head. 
Her  pumps  would  have  taken  care  of  the  leak- 
age of  water  through  the  bulkheads,  and  the 
ship  would  have  come  into  New  York  harbour 
under  her  own  steam. 

But  a  warship  and  a  passenger  ship  are  two 
very  different  propositions.  The  one,  being  de- 
signed to  resist  the  attack  of  an  implacable 
enemy,  who  is  using  every  weapon  that  the  in- 
genuity of  man  can  devise  to  effect  its  destruc- 
tion, is  built  with  little  if  any  regard  to  the 
cost.  The  other,  built  as  a  commercial  proposi- 
tion for  the  purpose  of  earning  reasonable 
dividends  for  its  owners,  and  exposed  only  to 
such  risks  of  damage  as  are  incidental  to  ocean 
transportation,  is  constructed  as  economically 
as  reasonable  considerations  of  strength  and 
safety  may  permit. 

Another  important  limitation  which  renders 
it  impossible  to  give  a  passenger  ship  the  elabo- 
rate subdivision  of  a  warship,  is  the  neces- 
sity of  providing  large  cargo  .spaces  and  wide 
hatchways  for  the  convenient  handling  and 
stowage  of  the  freight,  upon  which  a  large  pro- 
[162] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

portion  of  the  passenger-carrying  vessels  chiefly 
depend  for  their  revenue. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  main  features  of  war- 
ship protection  may  be  so  applied  to  the  large 
merchant  ship  as  to  render  her  as  proof  against 
collision  with  icebergs,  derelicts,  or  with  other 
vessels,  as  the  warship  is  against  the  blow  of 
the  ram,  the  mine,  or  the  torpedo.  And  the 
merchant  ship  of  the  size  of  our  largest  ocean 
liners  has  the  great  advantage  over  the  war- 
ship (provided  that  the  average  size  of  her 
compartments  be  not  too  greatly  increased) 
that  her  great  size  is  in  itself  a  safeguard 
against  sinking. 

By  way  of  showing  what  can  be  done  in  ap- 
plying warship  principles  of  subdivision  to 
merchant  vessels,  we  shall  consider  in  some  de- 
tail three  notable  ships,  the  Mauretania,  the 
Kronprinzessin  Cecilie,  and  the  recently 
launched  Imperator. 

The  Mauretcmia  and  her  sister,  the  Lusitania, 
were  built  under  an  agreement  with  the  Brit- 
ish Government,  who  stipulated  that  they  would 
provide  a  sum  sufficient  to  pay  for  the  new 
vessels  not  to  exceed  $13,000,000,  secured  on 
debentures  at  2%  per  cent,  interest.  The  two 
[165] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

ships  were  to  be  of  large  size  and  capable  of 
maintaining  a  minimum  average  ocean  speed  of 
241/£>  knots  in  moderate  weather.  The  govern- 
ment also  agreed  that  if  the  ships  fulfilled  these 
conditions,  the  Cunard  Company  was  to  be  paid 
annually  $750,000.00.  In  return  for  this  ex- 
tremely liberal  assistance,  the  Cunard  Company 
agreed  to  employ  them  in  the  British  mail-carry- 
ing service ;  to  so  construct  them  that  they  would 
be  available  for  use  as  auxiliary  cruisers;  and 
to  hold  them  at  the  instant  service  of  the  gov- 
ernment in  case  of  war.  In  addition  to  holding 
the  ships  at  the  service  of  the  government,  it 
was  agreed  that  all  the  officers  and  three- 
fourths  of  the  crew  should  be  British  subjects, 
and  that  a  large  proportion  should  belong  to  the 
Eoyal  Naval  Keserve.  The  ships  were  thus  to 
be  utilised  as  a  training  school  for  officers  and 
seamen,  and  with  this  point  in  view  a  record 
of  the  personnel  was  to  be  made  each  month. 

The  particulars  of  these  two  ships  as  finally 
constructed  are  as  follows :  Length  over  all  790 
feet;  beam,  88  feet;  displacement,  46,000  tons; 
and  horsepower,  70,000.  Both  vessels  greatly 
exceeded  the  contract  speed  of  24^  knots,  the 
Lusitcmia  having  maintained  over  251/2  knots 
[166] 


a 

fe 

00 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

and  the  Mauretania  26  knots  for  the  whole  run 
across  the  Atlantic. 

The  purpose  of  the  present  chapter  is  to 
show  how  successfully  the  methods  of  under- 
water protection  employed  in  naval  ships  may 
be  applied  to  passenger  ships  of  the  first  class ; 
and  the  Mauretania  is  given  first  consideration, 
for  the  reason  that  she  is  the  best  example  afloat 
to-day  of  a  merchant  ship  fully  protected 
against  sinking  by  collision.  The  protective  ele- 
ments may  be  summed  up  as  consisting  of  mul- 
tiple subdivision,  associated  with  a  complete 
inner  skin  and  a  watertight  steel  deck,  answer- 
ing to  the  heavy  protective  deck  at  the  water- 
line  of  the  warship.  By  reference  to  the  hold 
plan  on  page  129  it  will  be  noticed  that  she  is 
subdivided  by  22  transverse  bulkheads,  12  of 
which  extend  entirely  across  the  ship  and  10 
from  the  side  inboard  to  the  longitudinal  bulk- 
heads. The  space  devoted  to  the  turbine  en- 
gines is  subdivided  by  two  lines  of  longitudinal 
bulkheading,  and  the  compartment  aft  of  the 
engine-room  spaces  is  divided  by  a  longitudi- 
nal bulkhead  placed  upon  the  axis  of  the  ship. 
Altogether  there  are  34  separate  watertight 
compartments  below  the  water-line.  The  most 
[169] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

important  feature  of  the  subdivision  is  the  two 
lines  of  longitudinal  bulkheads,  which  extend 
each  side  of  the  boiler-rooms  and  serve  the 
double  purpose  of  providing  watertight  bunker 
compartments  and  protecting  the  large  boiler- 
room  compartments  from  being  flooded,  in  the 
event  of  damage  to  the  outer  skin  of  the  ship. 
The  main  engine-room,  containing  the  low- 
pressure  turbines,  is  similarly  protected  against 
flooding. 

Now,  all  of  these  bulkheads  are  carried  up 
to  a  watertight  connection  with  the  upper  deck, 
which,  amidships,  is  over  two  decks,  or  say 
about  20  feet  above  the  water-line,  the  excep- 
tion being  the  first  or  collision  bulkhead,  which 
extends  to  the  shelter  deck.  A  most  important 
feature  of  the  protection,  borrowed  from  war- 
ship practice,  is  that  the  lower  deck,  which, 
amidships,  is  located  at  about  the  water-line, 
is  built  of  extra  heavy  plating,  and  is  furnished 
with  strong  watertight  hatches.  It  thus  serves 
the  purpose  of  a  protective  deck,  and  water, 
which  flooded  any  compartment  lying  below  the 
water-line,  would  be  restrained  by  this  deck 
from  finding  its  way  through  to  the  decks  above. 
The  Mauretcmia,  therefore,  could  sustain  an 
[170] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

enormous  amount  of  damage  below  the  water- 
line  without  foundering.  It  is  our  belief  that 
she  would  have  survived  the  disaster  which 
sank  the  Titanic.  The  first  three  compartments 
would  have  been  flooded,  it  is  true,  but  the 
water  would  have  been  restrained  from  her 
large  forward  boiler-compartment  by  the"  in- 
ner skin  "  of  the  starboard  bunkers.  Further- 
more, the  watertight  hatches  of  her  lower,  or 
protective,  deck  would  have  prevented  that  up- 
ward flow  of  water  on  to  the  decks  above,  which 
proved  so  fatal  to  the  Titcmic. 

In  dealing  with  the  question  of  safety,  the 
German  shipbuilders  have  shown  that  thorough 
study  of  the  problem  which  characterises  the 
German  people  in  all  their  industrial  work. 
Although  German  ships  of  the  first  class,  such 
as  the  Kronprinzessin  Cecilie  and  the  Impera- 
tor  are  not  built  to  naval  requirements,  they 
embody  many  of  the  same  protective  features 
as  are  to  be  found  in  the  Mauretania  and  Lusi- 
tania,  and,  indeed,  in  some  safety  features,  and 
particularly  in  those  built  in  the  ship  as  a  pro- 
tection against  fire,  they  excel  them. 

The  existence  of  side  bunkers,  small  compart- 
ments, and  bulkheads  carried  well  up  above  the 
[173] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

water-line,  is  due  to 
jf  the  close  supervision  and 

strict  requirements  of  the 
g  German  Lloyd  and  the 

immigration  authorities, 
§  and  it  takes  but  a  glance 

at  the  hold  plan  of  the 

Kronprinzessin  Cecilie  to 

*?      w 

§  .  3  show  how  admirably  this 

*fcC*    0 

§~  o  ship   and   her   sister   are 
a  f  |  protected      against      col- 
*  J  I  lision.        There     are     21 
J  |  |  transverse   bulkheads,   18 

?^  J  of  which  are  shown  in  the 

05  «  M 

|§  §  hold     plan,      the      other 

JS       IB 

§1  3  three      being      sub-bulk- 
-3 1  Q  heads,     worked     in     the 

O  o     i-3 

J    H  after    part    of    the    ship 
abaft    of    the    machinery 
g,        spaces.    The  four  engines 

rj 

,2         are  contained  in  four  sep- 

CJ 

g  arate  compartments,  and 

§,  the  boiler-rooms  are  en- 

^  tirely  surrounded  by  coal- 

3  bunkers.     These,  the  lar- 

h 

gest    compartments,    are 
[174] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

protected  throughout  their  entire  length  by  the 
inner  skin  of  the  coal-bunker  bulkheads.  The 
engine-rooms  are  further  protected  by  extend- 
ing the  inner  floor  of  the  double  bottom  up  the 
sides  as  shown  on  page  176.  Altogether,  the 
hold  plan  shows  33  separate,  watertight  com- 
partments. The  collision  bulkhead  is  carried 
up  to  the  shelter  deck,  and  the  other  bulkheads 
terminate  at  the  main  deck,  which  is  about  19 
feet  above  the  normal  water-line. 

It  is  greatly  to  the  credit  of  the  Germans 
that  they  have  given  such  careful  attention  to 
the  question  of  fire  protection.  We  have  shown 
in  a  previous  chapter  that  the  long  stretch  of 
staterooms,  with  alleyways  several  hundred 
feet  in  length  running  through  them,  offer  dan- 
gerous facilities  for  the  rapid  spread  of  a  fire, 
should  it  once  obtain  a  strong  hold  on  the  in- 
flammable material  of  which  the  stateroom  par- 
titions and  furnishings  are  composed.  On  the 
Kaiser  Wilhelm  II  and  Cecilie  the  passenger 
accommodations  on  the  main  deck  are  protected 
against  the  spread  of  fire  by  four  steel  bulk- 
heads, which  extend  from  side  to  side  of  the 
ship.  Where  the  alleyways  intersect  these 
bulkheads,  fire-doors  are  provided  which 
[175] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

are   closed  by  hand   and   secured   by   strong 
clamps. 

The  fire  protection  also  includes  both  an  out- 


courtesy  of  Engineering 

SECTION  THROUGH  ENGINE-ROOM  OF  THE  KAISER  WILHELM  II, 

SHOWING  INNER  BOTTOM  CARRIED  UP  SIDES  OF  SHIP,  TO 

FORM  DOUBLE  SKIN 

side  and  an  inside  line  of  fire-mains.     Fire- 
drill,  with  full  pressure  on  the  mains,  is  car- 
ried on  every  time  the  ship  is  in  port,  the  out- 
[176] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

side  lines  of  fire-mains  being  used.  Once  every 
three  months  there  is  a  fire-drill  with  the  inside 
line  of  mains.  Every  time  the  ship  reaches 
her  home  port,  both  fire-drills  and  lifeboat  drills 
are  carried  out  under  the  close  inspection  of 
German  Government  officials. 

Now,  the  provision  of  fire  bulkheads  is  such 
an  excellent  protection  that  it  should  be  made 
compulsory  upon  every  steamship  of  large 
carrying  capacity.  Moreover,  they  should  be 
extended  throughout  the  full  tier  of  decks  re- 
served for  passenger  accommodation.  The 
bulkheads  need  not  be  of  heavy  construction, 
and  they  can  be  placed  in  the  natural  line  of 
division  of  the  staterooms,  where  they  will 
cause  no  inconvenience. 

Special  interest  attaches  to  the  Imperator  of 
the  Hamburg- American  Line,  just  now,  because 
she  is  the  latest  and  largest  of  those  huge  ocean 
liners,  of  which  the  Olympic  and  Titanic  were 
the  forerunners.  This  truly  enormous  vessel, 
900  feet  long  and  96  feet  broad,  will  displace, 
when  fully  loaded,  65,000  tons,  or  5,000  tons 
more  than  the  Titanic.  A  study  of  her  hold 
plan  and  inboard  profile,  shown  on  page  163, 
proves  that  it  is  possible  to  provide  for  an  even 
[177] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

larger  boiler  and  machinery  plant  than  that  of 
the  Titanic,  without  making  any  of  that  sacrifice 
of  safety,  which  is  so  evident  in  the  arrange- 
ment of  compartments  and  bulkheads  on  the 
Titanic.  Not  only  are  the  bulkheads  through- 
out the  machinery  and  boiler  compartments 
carried  to  the  second  deck  above  the  water-line, 
but  the  same  spaces,  throughout  their  whole 
length,  are  protected  by  an  inner  skin  in  the 
form  of  the  longitudinal  bulkheads  of  the  side 
bunkers.  The  large  forward  engine-room  is 
also  protected  by  two  longitudinal  bulkheads  at 
the  sides  of  the  ship  and  the  after  engine-room 
is  divided  by  a  central  longitudinal  bulkhead. 
Protection  against  the  spread  of  fire  is  assured 
by  several  bulkheads  worked  across  the  decks 
which  are  devoted  to  passenger  accommodation. 


[178] 


CHAPTER  X 

CONCLUSIONS 

L  THE  fact  that  the  Titanic  sank  in  two  hours 
and  thirty  minutes  after  a  collision  demon- 
strates that  the  margin  of  safety  against 
foundering  in  this  ship  was  dangerously  nar- 
row. 

IL  It  is  not  to  the  point  to  say  that  the  col- 
lision was  of  an  unusual  character  and  may 
never  occur  again.  Collision  with  an  iceberg  is 
one  of  the  permanent  risks  of  ocean  travel,  and 
this  stupendous  calamity  has  shown  how  dis- 
astrous its  results  may  be.  We  cannot  afford 
to  gamble  with  chance  in  a  hazard  whose  issue 
involves  the  life  or  death  of  a  whole  townful  of 
people. 

III.  If  it  be  structurally  possible,  and  the 
cost  is  not  prohibitive,  passenger  ships  should 
be  so  designed,  that  they  cannot  be  sunk  by  any 
of  the  accidents  of  the  sea, — not  even  by  such 
a  disaster  as  befell  the  Titanic. 

IV.  That  such  design  and  construction  are 

[179] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

possible  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  the  first 
of  the  large  ocean  liners,  the  Great  Eastern, 
built  over  half  a  century  ago,  so  far  fulfilled 
these  conditions,  that,  after  receiving  inju- 
ries to  her  hull  more  extensive  than  those 
which  sank  the  Titanic,  she  came  safely  to 
port. 

V.  It  is  not  to  the  point  to  attribute  the 
financial  failure  of  the  Great  Eastern  to  the 
costly  character  of  her  construction.    She  failed 
because,  commercially,  she  was  ahead  of  her 
time,  passenger  and  freight  traffic  being  yet  in 
their   infancy   when   the    ship   was   launched. 
Cheap    steel   and   modern    shipyard    facilities 
have  made  it  possible  to  build  a  ship  of  the 
size  and  unsinkable  characteristics  of  the  Great 
Eastern,  with  a  reduction  in  the  cost  of  twenty 
to  thirty  per  cent. 

VI.  The  principles  of  unsinkable  construc- 
tion, as  formulated  by  Brunei  and  worked  out 
in  this  remarkable  ship,  have  been  adopted  in 
their  entirety  by  naval  constructors,  and  are 
to  be  found  embodied  in  every  modern  warship. 
These   elements — the   double    skin,   transverse 
and    longitudinal    bulkheads,    and    watertight 
decks — are  the  sine  qua  non  of  warship  con- 

[180] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

struction;  and  in  the  designing  of  warships, 
they  receive  the  first  consideration,  all  other 
questions  of  speed,  armour-protection,  and 
gun-power  being  made  subordinate. 

VII.  In  the  building  of  merchant  ships,  un- 
sinkable    construction   has   been   sacrificed   to 
considerations  of  speed,  convenience  of  opera- 
tion, and  the  provision  of  luxurious  accommo- 
dations for  the  travelling  public.     The  inner 
skin,  the  longitudinal  bulkhead,  and  the  water- 
tight deck  have  been  abandoned.    Although  the 
transverse  bulkhead  has  been  retained,  its  effi- 
ciency has  been  greatly  impaired;  for,  whereas 
these  bulkheads  in  the  Great  Eastern  extended 
thirty  feet  above  the  water-line ;  in  the  Titanic, 
they  were  carried  only  ten  feet  above  the  same 
point. 

VIII.  The  portentous  significance  of  this  de- 
cline in  the  art  of  unsinkable  construction  will 
be  realised,  when  it  is  borne  in  mind  that  the 
Titanic  was  built  to  the  highest  requirements 
of  the  Board  of  Trade  and  the  insurance  com- 
panies.    She  was  the  latest  example  of  cur- 
rent and  approved  practice  in  the  construction 
of  high-class  passenger  ships  of  the  first  mag- 
nitude; and,  judged  on  the  score  of  safety 

[181] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

against  sinking,  she  was  as  safe  a  ship  as 
ninety-five  out  of  every  hundred  merchant  ves- 
sels afloat  to-day. 

IX.  That  the  narrowing  of  the  margin  of 
safety  in  merchant  ships  during  the  past  fifty 
years  has  not  been  due  to  urgent  considera- 
tions of  economy,  is  proved  by  the  fact  that 
shipowners   have   not   hesitated   to   incur  the 
enormous  expense  involved  in  providing  the 
costly  machinery  to  secure  high  speed,  or  the 
equally  heavy  outlay  involved  in  providing  the 
sumptuous  accommodations  which  characterise 
the  modern  liner. 

X.  If,  then,  by  making  moderate  concessions 
in  the  direction  of  speed  and  luxury,  it  would 
be  possible,  without  adding  to  the  cost,  to  re- 
introduce  those  structural  features  which  are 
necessary  to  render  a  ship  unsinkable,  consid- 
erations of  humanity  demand  that  it  should  be 
done. 

XI.  Should  the  stupendous  disaster  of  April 
the  14th  lead  us  back  to  the  sane  construction 
of  fifty  years  ago,  and  teach  us  so  to  construct 
the  future  passenger  ship  that  she  shall  be  not 
merely  fast  and  comfortable,  but  practically  un- 
sinkable, the  hapless  multitude  who  went  down 

[182] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

to  their  death  in  that  unspeakable  calamity 
will  not  have  died  in  vain. 

XII.  In  conclusion,  let  us  note  what  changes 
would  render  such  a  ship  as  the  Titanic  un- 
sinkable : 

(a)  The  inner  floor   of  the  double  bottom 
should  be  extended  up  the  sides  to  a  watertight 
connection  with  the  middle  deck.     This  inner 
skin  should  extend  from  bulkhead  No.  1  at  the 
bow  to  bulkhead  No.  14,  the  second  bulkhead 
from  the  stern. 

(b)  The  lower  deck  should  be  made  abso- 
lutely watertight  from  stem  to  stern,  so  as  to 
form  practically  a  second  inner  bottom;  and 
it  should  be  strengthened  to  withstand  a  water 
pressure    equal    to    that    to    which   the    outer 
bottom    of   the   ship   is    subjected    at   normal 
draft. 

(c)  All  openings  through  this  deck,  such  as 
those   for   hatches    and   ladders    and   for   the 
boiler  uptakes,  should  be  enclosed  by  strong 
watertight  casings,  carried  up  to  the  shelter 
deck,  and  free  from  any  doors  or  openings 
leading  to  the  intervening  decks, — the  construc- 
tion being  such  that  the  water,  rising  within 
these  casings  from  the  flooded  spaces  below 

[183] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

the  lower  deck,  could  not  find  its  way  out  to 
the  decks  above. 

(d)  The  second  bulkhead  from  the  bow  and 
the  second  from  the  stern  should  be  carried  up 
to    the    shelter    deck.      All    the    intermediate 
bulkheads  should  be  extended  one  deck  higher 
to  the  saloon  deck,  D. 

(e)  The  cargo  spaces  in  compartments  3  and 
4,  lying  below  the  middle  deck,  should  be  di- 
vided by  a  central  longitudinal  bulkhead,  and 
the  hatches,  leading  up  from  these  holds,  should 
be  enclosed  in  watertight  casings  extending, 
without    any   openings,    to    the   shelter    deck, 
where   they   should   be   closed   by   watertight 
hatch  covers.     The  huge  reciprocating-engine- 
room  should  be  divided  by  a  similar,  central, 
longitudinal  bulkhead. 

(f)  Finally,  the  passenger  spaces  on  decks 
A,  B,  C,  and  D,  should  be  protected  against 
fire  by  the  construction,  at  suitable  intervals, 
of  transverse  bulkheads  of  light  construction, 
provided  with  fire-doors  where  they  intersect 
the  alleyways. 

A  Titanic,  as  thus  modified,  might  reason- 
ably be  pronounced  unsinkable.    To  such  a  ship 
[184] 


AN  UNSINKABLE  TITANIC 

we  could  confidently  apply  the  verdict  of 
Brunei,  as  recorded  in  his  notes  on  the  strength 
and  safety  of  the  Great  Eastern:  "  No  com- 
bination of  circumstances,  within  the  ordinary 
range  of  probability,  can  cause  such  damage  as 
to  sink  her." 


[185] 


u 


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